■Ah 



SF 269 

Copy I 



(B. A. I 127 Dairy No. 24.) 

U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 

BUREAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTKV. 
DAIRY DIVISION. 



EXPERIMENTAL EXPORTS OF BUTTER, 1897. 



II ENRY E. ALVOIU), C. E., 

CHIEF OF DAIRY DIVISION. 



[RkI'KINTKIi 1UOM FlITKKNTH AXNI'AI, REl'oKT OK THH 

Bukkau of Animal Ini>usti:y.] 




WASHINGTON: 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE. 
180 0. 



to 



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An. Rpt. B. A. I , 1? 



Plate III. 




Butter room: Dairy students at worl 




Preparing first shipment of butter for export. 
College Creamery, Iowa State Agricultural College. 



REPORT UPON EXPERIMENTAL EXPORTS OF BUTTER, 

1897. 

By Henry E. Alvord, C. E., 
Chief of Dairy Division, Bureau of Animal Industry. 

Soon after entering upon office a year ago the Secretary of Agricul- 
ture directed that experimental exports of selected creamery butter 
be made to England, under the supervision of the Bureau of Animal 
Industry, for the purpose of gaining information beneficial to all 
persons desiring to sell in British markets a part of the fine butter 
produced in this country. The detailed execution of this work was 
assigned to the Dairy Division; shipments were made periodically 
during the greatest butter-producing months of the year 1897, and 
upon this subject I have now the honor to submit this report. 

For more than a century the annual export of butter from the 
United States has exceeded 1,000,000 pounds, and at times this export 
has reached 35,000,000 and 40,000,000 pounds a year. 1 But this but- 
ter has been nearly all of inferior grade, and shipped without special 
care as ordinary ocean freight. The low average quality of the butter 
thus exported, together with the large exports of butter substitutes 
in recent years, 2 has given to foreign merchants, especially in Great 
Britain, the impression that good butter could not be obtained in 
the United States. And the great fluctuation in the quantity of 
yearly exports has indicated that no regular supply from this country 
could be depended upon. 

The experimental exports by the Department during the past year 
were designed in part to correct these erroneous opinions entertained 
by foreign butter buyers. 

The recent rapid extension of the creamery system in this country 
has raised the average quality of the butter product of the United 
States, and there have been indications for a year or two that the 
supply of high-grade butter would soon exceed the domestic demand. 
This condition has been appreciated by experienced merchants, who 
have lately exported considerable butter of high grade to Great 
Britain, using for a portion of it refrigerated transportation on ocean 
steamers. Knowledge of the conditions attending this business has 
been confined to a very few persons, and with the steadily increasing 

1 See table of butter exports appended, p. 107. 
'•'See table of exports of oleo, etc., appended, p. 10S. 

5422 1 



84 BUREAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTRY. 

desire to extend the market for creamery butter, especially from the 
large producing districts of the West and Northwest, it was deemed 
expedient for this Department to ascertain the facts experimentally 
and make them known to all concerned. 

It was decided to make the trial shipments of the season to London. 
There was good reason for making the first effort to promote an 
increased demand for fine American butter in the markets of Eng- 
land. That country is the greatest of all buyers of foreign-made 
butter. Great Britain imported butter during the year 1897 to the 
value of $77,000,000. This was 45 per cent in excess of like imports 
five years before, and the demand seems to be steadily increasing. 1 

Creamery butter of the grade known commercially as "extras" 
was selected as the standard for trial exports, because this represents 
the great bulk of the product for a part of which it seems desirable 
to obtain a foreign demand, and because of the purpose to demon- 
strate the high quality of butter obtainable in this country. The 
butter was produced from creameries in eleven different States, in 
order to further demonstrate that this production is not confined to 
any particular and limited portion of the United States. 

The butter exported was made in accordance with special instruc- 
tions from this office at creameries in Connecticut, Iowa, Kansas, 
Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New York, Ohio, South 
Dakota, Vermont, and Wisconsin. Creameries were selected for the 
puipose which were known to have won high honors at public butter 
exhibits and contests, or which were designated, at the request of the 
Department, by State dairy officials or State dairy associations. The 
instructions given were based upon the available knowledge regard- 
ing the particular requirements of the London market, and in the 
preparation of the later lots the makers had the benefit of experience 
derived from the earlier shipments. The Department paid for the 
butter used the regular market price for the product of the creamery 
concerned, at its own shipping station, at the time of shipment. 
Whatever extra labor and special care was necessary, in the use of 
unusual packages, modification of usual methods to conform to instruc- 
tions, promptness in making and shipping and rendering reports, was 
cheerfully contributed, without charge, by the managers and butter 
makers of the respective creameries. A list of the creameries which 
cooperated with the Department in this public-spirited manner is 
appended at page 108,, together with the places and times of manufac- 
ture. Acknowledgment is hereby made for the material assistance 
thus rendered. 

The butter was made in all cases from the regular factory supplies 
of milk or cream and in substantially the same way as prepared for 
home markets, so that the shipments as a whole fairly represented 
the best product of the active creamery districts of the country. 

1 See table of British imports of butter, appended, p. 108. 



FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT. 85 

Detailed reports were rendered in every case, and a full history was 
obtained of every lot of butter experimentally exported. 1 To com- 
plete the record, sample packages were carefully examined and scored 
by commercial experts and analyzed by competent chemists, as later 
described. 

Several interesting experiments were made incidentally to deter- 
mine facts along certain lines connected with the subject. Impor- 
tant among these were trials of the relative merits, upon reaching the 
London market, and the comparative keeping quality of butter as 
usually made and that from pasteurized cream; also experiments in 
sending to such a distant market "sweet," or wholly unsalted butter. 
Although these trials were insufficient to furnish conclusive results, 
they were satisfactory in the main and fully justify repetition, with 
the same ends in view. Special reports upon these subjects are 
included in the Appendix. (See pages 110 and 125.) 

It is already evident that pasteurization of milk or cream, in con- 
nection with butter making, deserves careful study and persistent 
trial, especially in connection with the export trade. The prevailing 
creamery methods result in a product which has general characteris- 
tics and shows a vast improvement in almost every particular over 
the great diversity in butter consequent upon the practice of farm 
dairies. But there is still altogether too much variation in creamery 
butter for the good of the trade, not only among different factories 
but in the product of the same creamery at different times. Natural 
methods of ripening cream are uncertain, even under expert manage- 
ment; when inexperience and carelessness are involved, the opportu- 
nities become almost infinite for variety in flavor and other qualities. 
Pasteurization, necessarily accompanied by "starters" in cream- 
ripening, being preferably of known and special ferments, or "cul- 
tures," certainly tends to much greater uniformity in butter, even 
from widely separated sources, and produces a flavor slow in devel- 
opment and well adapted to foreign trade, besides apparently improv- 
ing keeping quality, which is an important factor in the same con- 
nection. At least 95 per cent of the export butter of Denmark is now 
made from milk or cream which has been pasteurized, and there can 
be no doubt that to this fact is largely due that remarkable uniform- 
ity in flavor and general character which gives Danish butter such a 
strong hold in the best English markets. 

The butter which brings the highest price of all in London is 
entirely without salt and called "fresh" and "sweet." The supply 
is mainly from the north of France, although some is made in Eng- 
land and some obtained from Ireland and from Italy. The favorite 
form is a 2-pound roll, packed twelve in a box. The rolls are not 
separately wrapped, but the box usually has linings of both cloth and 
paper. When the best salted butter is selling in London at 25 cents 



1 For an example of these reports, see Appendix V, p. 109. 



86 BUREAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTRY. 

per pound, these Normandy and Brittany rolls sell at 30 cents per 
pound. The supply is quite constant, and this butter is delivered so 
as to be consumed within a week or ten days from the time it is made. 
It usually contains a small quantity of borax or other preservative to 
assist in keeping it sound. During the early autumn the Department 
sent over two lots of unsalted butter, made at Eastern creameries. 
This was packed like the French rolls and also in other ways. Parts 
of this butter molded badly on the way, but this could be avoided in 
future. These trials, the first of their kind ever made so far as 
known, met with several accidents and in several particulars gave 
unsatisfactory results, but enough was learned from them to show 
that it is entirely practicable to make butter of this class and place it 
in London just as fine in quality and condition as that which is above 
described as supplied from France. 

The butter exported was sent in packages which varied much in 
size, form, material, and treatment. For general trade, a package 
holding from 50 to 60 pounds is wanted in Great Britain as well as 
in this country. Fifty-six pounds (or a half hundredweight) is an 
approved size in London, and "quarters" (of 28 pounds) are accepta- 
ble in limited quantity. Smaller or family-sized packages, to be sold 
unbroken, which are gaining in popularity in the best American mar- 
kets, are not favored in London by either wholesale or retail mer- 
chants. Packages holding from 1 to 7 pounds were objected to as 
innovations; but, although retail merchants in London prefer to 
adhere to old methods and cut from a large lump for their customers, 
there were indications that consumers would soon learn to like the 
unbroken, convenient-sized packages, and by persistent offering these 
would come into demand, especially in connection with suburban 
trade. 

There is great variety in form as well as size among the butter 
packages appearing in the London market. Firkins or small casks 
holding from 50 to 120 pounds are very common, and the cubical box, 
which originated in Australia and bears that name, is a prime favor- 
ite. This box holds just a cubic foot of butter, which usually weighs 
a little over 56 pounds. The cubical or other rectangular package 
unquestionably has intrinsic merits and decided commercial advan- 
tages. As an export package it is already generally advocated. But it 
would be highly objectionable to have one form of package demanded 
for export purposes and a different one for domestic use, and it will 
certainly be a long time before the ' ' Welsh " tub, or more properly 
the American creamery tub, ceases to be the standard butter package 
of the United States. It is a great mistake to suppose that London 
or any British market yet demands its butter in Australian boxes. 
A small fraction of the butter sold in London is in this form. By far 
the greater portion is in "kiels" or casks in every respect inferior to 
the creamery tub. It has already been demonstrated that if the 



FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT. 87 

quality is satisfactory London will pay as much for its (salted) butter 
in one form as in another. It will be an easy matter to compromise 
by cutting the capacity of the creamery tub from 60 pounds to 56, 
and thus making a package acceptable both at home and abroad. 

The chief objection to the creamery tub at present in British mar- 
kets is that poor butter from the United States has been so largely 
exported in that form that this package is closely associated in the 
minds of English buyers with a low grade of goods. This prejudice 
is so strong that it is hard to get an English merchant who is seeking 
good butter to even take time to examine the contents of a package 
recognized by him as a "States tub." 

The materials approved for tubs are white ash and spruce, without 
marked preference in London. For boxes, spruce and poplar are used, 
and the latter seems to be preferred by the foreign buyers. More 
important than the kind of wood is its thorough seasoning, in order 
to be absolutely odorless and tasteless. 

The packages alone are an insufficient protection to their contents 
against the exposure of the voj^age and the incidental transfer. 
Hence all packages need good parchment-paper linings well put in 
place. Double linings are desirable. These are used by foreign 
countries as a rule and are much heavier and better in quality than 
those used in this country. Besides linings, different methods were 
tried of coating the inside of the boxes with suitable material, to 
insure against unseasoned wood and to render the packages as nearly 
air-tight as possible. Paraffin was used for this purpose, applied hot, 
so as to thoroughly coat the inner surfaces, including the cover, and 
fill all cracks and joints. A patent application, a sort of enamel, 
was also tried. These extra precautions to guard the butter from 
exterior injury were found to be worthy of general adoption. The 
parchment linings may be regarded as essential; otherwise, the inte- 
rior box coatings may depend upon the quality and tightness of the 
package. 

A package with a clean exterior is attractive at the place of ultimate 
sale. Boxes and tubs are exposed to much rough handling and soil- 
ing between a Western creamery and a British market. It has been 
found that a coarse burlap sack or cover fitted to the box or tub and 
drawn tightly over it helps materially in keeping the package clean, 
prevents changes of temperature, and facilitates handling. In the 
trial shipments butter from different places was sent abroad with 
parts of the same lot sacked and partly without. Reports showed 
that while packages of butter thus protected did not actually sell for 
more than those of like contents sent without this covering, the sacked 
packages were first chosen because cleaner, and English merchants 
advised that the burlap covers be used in all cases. Early in the sea- 
son of 1897 these sacks cost in quantity only about 4 cents each; later, 
changes in tariff caused a rise in price to 10 cents, and still later the 



88 BUREAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTRY. 

price settled down to about 8 cents each. At this rate it seems to be 
true economy to use them on all packages of fine buttter exported. 

The Department trials included butter in prints (variously called 
blocks, tablets, lumps, rolls, and pats) of pound and half-pound 
weights, in separate paper wrappers, some packed in cases of different 
sizes and some with every print in a box of heavy paper. Also, butter 
in small boxes of tin and paper board, hermetically sealed and suited 
for ocean voyages and use in hot climates. With proper care, it will 
not be difficult to send print butter from this country to English mar- 
kets in good condition and to make this form popular with retail 
merchants and their customers. For butter in sealed packages there 
is always a demand from the shipping trade, but as the contents of 
these packages can not be examined, the sales must depend upon an 
established reputation as to quality, and this is a matter of time and 
business effort. The whole question of exporting small packages and 
novelties in form and material, including print butter, requires much 
further attention. 

With the exception of two lots, the butter selected for the export 
trials was carefully sampled and submitted to chemical analysis. 
These analyses were made in nearly all cases at the agricultural 
experiment stations in the States furnishing the butter, and acknowl- 
edgment is due to these stations for their prompt and gratuitous 
assistance. Additional analyses were made by the Chemical Division 
of this Department, and in order to have a still further check upon 
the work the butter was sampled in a number of cases while on the 
London market and examined by a public analyst in that city. The 
object of this chemical work was to determine as exactly as possible 
the important components of the butter in question, especially the 
proportions of fat, water, and salt. 

In order that the butter exported might be closely compared with 
high-grade butter from other countries on sale at the same time in 
London, sample packages of the best butter to be found in that mar- 
ket, from various sources of supply, were purchased several times 
during the season and their contents were also anatyzed. In two 
instances packages of these foreign-made butters were sent over from 
London to this country, being subjected to exactly the same condi- 
tions as to time, distance, and transportation as the States butter 
exported, except that the movement was in the opposite direction. 
The butters thus obtained for comparison were as follows : Best Eng- 
lish Dorset, in keg; Irish creamery, in pyramidal box; "Royal "Dan- 
ish, in "kiels" or casks; Dutch creamery, in firkin; Finnish, in keg; 
Brittany rolls, unsalted, in boxes; Normandy, in basket; New South 
Wales, in cubical box; New Zealand, in oblong box; Australian, in 
cubical box. Some of these were analyzed by a London chemist, but 
most of them at this Department and by the experiment stations in 
Connecticut and Iowa. 



FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT. 89 

So far as practicable, the different lots of butter exported and 
those imported for examination were inspected by an expert and 
scored upon a scale of points. The butter inspector of the New York 
Mercantile Exchange was selected for this duty and performed it 
very acceptably. In this way a fair basis for comparison was estab- 
lished. For further information packages of butter from export lots 
were placed in cold storage in New York, held there and examined 
again about the time the same lots were on sale in London, and some 
of the export butter was sent back from London to be compared in 
New York, after its double journey, with packages of the same lot 
retained in New York. Several of the foreign butters were also 
scored in Chicago. 

It was found impracticable to have the American butter included 
in the export trials scored in London and compared in that way with 
other butter on sale there, because this method of examination seems 
to be unknown in that market. Diligent inquiry failed to find anyone 
known to the trade in London who had ever scored butter upon a 
scale of points. Some attempts were made to use a score card sent 
over, but the inspectors were so unaccustomed to this method that, 
although doubtless good commercial judges of butter, the reports from 
them were of little value. 

The records of the various analyses and scores referred to are 
appended in tabular form, with some explanatory notes. (See pages 
128 to 134, inclusive.) 

The distance and the danger of injury incident to the long journey 
by land and by sea being appreciated from the first, the matter of 
transportation received the closest attention throughout the trials 
made. Shipments were allowed to follow commercial lines and be 
subjected to commercial conditions as closely as possible, but they 
were watched at all points by agents of the Department, in order to 
ascertain the exact facts, as a basis for subsequent improvement in 
the existing conditions. 

Railroad transportation facilities for perishable commodities are 
excellent in this country from all the principal producing regions to 
important points on the eastern seaboard. Similar facilities abroad 
are unusual and inferior. The various lines of refrigerator cars are 
well equipped and admirably managed here, so that little criticism 
of the present service is possible. The cleanliness of the cars, the 
temperature at which they are kept, the time schedules, and the 
freight tariffs, including these special facilities, wei*e examined, tested, 
approved, and commended. All the large creamery districts of the 
West are well served by refrigerator lines, and butter is carried 
thence to markets 2,000 miles or more distant and delivered in as 
good condition as at the starting point. 

Carload lots which can be moved unbroken from the creamery or 
creamery town to destination have great advantages, especially in 



90 BUREAU OP ANIMAL INDUSTRY. 

hot weather. Small lots necessitate opening the cars, causing more 
or less fluctuation in the temperature of the butter, and involve 
transfers from car to car at interior points, sometimes including an 
open-air haul across a city or town. These transfers receive in many 
cases the attention of special agents, if they are duly notified by 
shippers, but still afford opportunity for improvement. It is practi- 
cable to lessen the exposure of butter at these transfers by reducing 
distances, avoiding midday hauls and handling, and protecting the 
packages while on wagons and drays. 

Terminal facilities at the principal markets, including deliveries to 
consignees, have been greatly improved, but are yet far from perfect. 
Butter arriving unexpectedly, perhaps a day ahead of time, may 
remain at the terminal shed for several hours in a constantly rising 
temperature; it is not uncommon for notices of such arrivals in the 
early morning to reach consignees after 1 o'clock p. m. By efficient 
cooperation between railroads and merchants, it seems possible to 
materially lessen the average time which now elapses between the 
discharges of butter from refrigerator cars and its storing in cellars 
and cold rooms. 

The Department trials included nineteen shipments over five 
refrigerator lines west of Chicago and four others reaching New York 
City. These shipments being all intended for export upon steamers 
with latest receiving hours named well in advance, estimates were 
made for as close connections as possible between railroad and vessel. 
Of the nineteen shipments mentioned, fifteen arrived at New York 
on time, and four were so late as to miss the sailing day desired. 
Three of these were from west of Chicago and one from central Ohio ; 
they were delayed upon three different transportation lines. These 
delays were not due to railroad accidents or detentions of trains, but 
to avoidable circumstances in connection with transfers, showing 
points for improvement in the service. 

It is not usually a matter of consequence to the merchant at an 
Eastern market if a consignment of butter arrives late by some hours, 
or even a day or two. But with butter intended for direct export, 
economy in handling and protection of quality render close connec- 
tion between railroad and steamer quite important. Time, tide, and 
ocean steamers wait not for railroads. This kind of special service 
by the latter must be made as nearly perfect as possible. Some 
detentions by rail are unavoidable; and, to provide against these, the 
terminal facilities of the transportaion lines should include cold- 
storage accommodations, well located and ample in capacity, so that 
butter for export may arrive two or three days in advance of sailing 
time and (where the refrigerator car can not be held) be stored with- 
out charge until the proper hour for delivery to the vessel. There 
have been a few attempts to make such provisions in a small way, 
but nothing commensurate with the requirements of enlarged traffic. 



FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT. 91 

Six trial shipments had to be brought to New York City by express 
from creameries in the States of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Con- 
necticut, and. New York because refrigerator car service could not be 
obtained. Local traffic is still lacking such accommodations in the 
East. It cost more per pound in every instance to bring butter to the 
port of export from creameries 100 to 300 miles distant than to bring 
it from points ten times as far distant, and the butter coming 2,000 
miles arrived in better order. Such conditions require no comment. 

In accordance with special instructions from the Secretary of Agri- 
culture, much attention was given to ascertaining the present and 
prospective facilities for the transportation of perishable farm 
products by sea, including ports from which few exports of this char- 
acter have yet been made. 

During a great part of the year accommodations for first-class 
ocean freight are good and sufficient. But there are several months 
in which butter for export is most abundant, when the quality of a 
high-grade article can only be safely preserved by cold storage during 
the voyage. The same provisions are needed for the preservation of 
other perishable products. A good many ocean steamers now have 
large commercial refrigerators fitted to be maintained at any desired 
temperature above the zero of Fahrenheit. Up to the present time, 
however, the demand for such accommodations has been so small 
and infrequent for commodities other than fresh meat that the 
expense of keeping these refrigerators ready for general purposes has 
not been justified. Nearly all of the commercial refrigerators upon 
vessels sailing regularly from ports of the United States consequently 
have been, and still are, contracted for by the large exporters of beef 
and other fresh meats and used by them exclusively throughout the 
season. During the summer of 1897 one commercial refrigerator was 
open to the general public on the steamers of the American Line 
from the port of New York weekly for three weeks out of every four. 
This was the extent of the accommodations of this kind which could 
be depended upon as available. Other lines from New York opened 
a refrigerator for general use occasionally. Inquiries at Portland, 
Me., Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Charleston, New Orleans, Gal- 
veston, San Francisco, and Portland, Oreg., failed to find like facili- 
ties offered to shippers. From a few of these ports fresh meat was 
exported in refrigerators under exclusive contracts. Occasionally a 
vessel fitted with a refrigerator would clear from one of them, but 
these occasions were so rare and irregular as to be of no practical 
benefit to shippers. Earnest efforts to arrange for experimental 
exports* of dairy products, fresh fruits, and other perishables over 
new lines, under the auspices of this Department, failed because 
suitable refrigerated ocean transportation could not be obtained. 
The same state of affairs seems probable for the season of 1898, 
although there are partial promises of a line of steamers with 



92 BUREAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTRY. 

refrigerators available to the public from Boston to Bristol, and an 
occasional additional refrigerator on a Liverpool steamer from New 
York. 

While this unfortunate lack of refrigerated space available to all 
exporters exists in this country, the butter makers and merchants of 
Canada, who are competing with those of the United States for posi- 
tion in the markets of Great Britain, have export facilities which can 
hardly be excelled. Under the fostering care of the Dominion gov- 
ernment, which has borne a large part of the expense of initial 
equipment, seventeen steamers sailing from Montreal during the past 
season have been fitted with refrigerators, and the use of these has 
been secured to shippers in general at extremely low rates. There 
has thus been weekly refrigerated service from Montreal to London, 
Liverpool, and Bristol, and fortnightly service to Glasgow. There 
has also been fortnightly service from Halifax and St. Johns to Lon- 
don, and monthly service from Prince Edward Island. The system 
of refrigeration on all these vessels is mechanical, securing the best 
insulated compartments, and duplex machinery makes accidents next 
to impossible. Under the contracts between the Canadian govern- 
ment and the steamship lines these extra facilities are offered to ship- 
pers of butter made in the Dominion at a charge not exceeding 10 
English shillings per ton, or about 1 mill per pound, above the prevail- 
ing rates for first-class freight. During the season of 1897 the rate 
on butter in refrigerators from Montreal to London averaged about 
50 shillings per ton of 2, 240 pounds, or half a cent a pound. Of course, 
these rates were secured only for Canadian produce, and, indeed, 
refrigerated accommodations could be obtained upon the steamers 
from Montreal for other produce only in case the Canadian offerings 
did not fill the compartments. 

The combined railway and ocean rates from the Northwestern 
States to Great Britain were so much more favorable by way of Mon- 
treal than by way of New York that considerable States butter was 
sent by that route during the past season. The quantity of butter 
which crossed into Canada from the United States at Detroit, Mich., 
and Champlain, N. Y., during the year 1896-97 was three times as 
great as during the year next preceding. 

The trial shipments for this Department were made from New York 
to London via Southampton. The commercial refrigerators were used 
as much as possible, and at other times, through the courtesy of the 
International Navigation Company, the butter was carried in the 
ships' own cold rooms at current rates. The temperature preferred 
during the voyage was 30° to 32°, and this was easily obtained and 
evenly held. There is no reason to believe that there was any dete- 
rioration of quality in the butter of the several lots exported conse- 
quent upon the voyage itself and the detention on shipboard for seven 
to nine days. Entirely satisfactory transportation facilities can be 



FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT. 93 

provided on vessels, as now on land, whenever the demand is such as 
to secure the supply. 

Terminal facilities and the conditions pertaining to the necessary 
transfers at both ends of the voyage are far from what is needed. 
The steamers while loading are ready to receive certain classes of 
freight only at certain hours. These hours seldom agree with those 
of arrival by rail and delivery at the docks. Hence there is deten- 
tion and exposure at the wharves, there being no provisions there for 
temporary cold storage or special protection until taken on board. 
Butter is subjected to similar exposure on arrival at Southampton 
and while awaiting the forward movement to London. There is one 
large refrigerator on the wharf at Southampton, owned bjr the steam- 
ship company, but this is without subdivisions, is used indiscrimi- 
nately for all kinds of perishable products detained, meats especially, 
and is not a suitable place for holding butter. The Southwestern 
Railway Company have large masonry vaults under their tracks at 
Southampton, and these are kept clean and sweet and ventilated with 
electric fans. They would do for temporary storage of butter even 
without refrigeration, except in such extremely hot weather as rarely 
occurs at that place. Refrigerator cars on the line to London are 
furnished only for carload lots and shippers must provide their own 
ice. The railroad ordinarily offers no special accommodations, but 
the journey to London is short. The train carrying perishables 
makes the trip by night in about four hours, and the merchandise is 
very promptly delivered in the city during the early morning hours. 
The transfer from railway terminal to the warehouses of merchants 
is attended with less delay, and this service is better otherwise, than 
in New York. Early in the season there was complaint of much care- 
lessness in the way butter was handled and exposed when taken from 
the steamer and while held at Southampton, and the packages arrived 
in London soiled and sometimes showing very hard usage. Depart- 
ment agents gave this matter attention, and before the season closed 
the conditions at Southampton were reported as greatly improved. 
Better cold storage at British ports and the more general use of 
refrigerator cars on British railways are improvements required for 
commerce of this kind. 

If the transportation facilities were as good all the way from the 
American creamery to the European market as those afforded by the 
railroad lines in the United States and the trans- Atlantic steamers 
(when their refrigerators are available), the journey might be even 
longer and slower without injury to butter exported over this route. 
The chief danger of damage, as already stated, arises from the delays, 
exposure, and changes of temperature incident to the transfers on 
railways and those from land to water and water to land again. For 
perfecting this service attention should be directed to reducing the 
number of these transfers and improving the conditions pertaining 
to those which are unavoidable. 



94 BUREAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTRY. 

With the accommodations which were available during 1897, by the 
New York City route, and without material variation from usual com- 
mercial practice, this Department was able to transport butter from 
the creameries where made in the several States and deliver it to 
merchants in London in the number of days indicated as follows: 
Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Connecticut, ten or 
eleven days; New York, ten; Ohio, thirteen; Wisconsin, fourteen; 
Iowa, twelve to fifteen; Minnesota, sixteen to eighteen; Kansas and 
South Dakota, seventeen or eighteen. It is doubtful whether this 
time can be materially reduced, and fortunately a few days more or 
less seems to make no difference, if the butter is in a good refrigerator, 
on land or sea. The cost of the transportation service described, from 
the creameries to London, ranges from If cents to 3^ cents per pound 
of butter, net weight. The least was from Ohio and the greatest from 
Vermont. The average from Iowa was rather less than 2£ cents and 
from Kansas about 2f cents. These rates included transfer, cartage 
in New York, and the drayage on delivery in London, and were for 
single ton lots. The cost from the time the butter left the refrigerator 
car on arrival in New York until delivered to the London merchant 
averaged for the season almost 1 cent per pound. The extra expenses 
in cases of late arrival in New York and detention there in cold 
storage are not included. Butter shipped in carload lots secured 
much better rates, the difference being mainly in the tariff west of the 
Mississippi River. From different points in Kansas, rates of $1.20 to 
$1.40 per 100 pounds were obtained; allowing for packages this made 
about 1| cents per pound on the net weight of butter. 

The butter sent to London by this Department was handled in that 
city in various ways. Some went to large wholesale houses and from 
them reached consumers through the regular course of trade, some 
was first taken by jobbers who placed it in varying quantities in the 
hands of others to sell again, and in a few cases shipments were deliv- 
ered directly to retail dealers who sold the butter at once to consum- 
ers. One of the main objects of the trials was to have merchants of 
different classes make critical examinations of this States butter, 
compare it with the best butters in the market, and give opinions as 
to its merits. This was found to be a difficult matter, especially dur- 
ing the early part of the season. The wholesale merchants all had 
their favorite sources of supply and were unwilling to admit that any 
butter from this side of the Atlantic was at all equal to the English, 
Irish, Scandinavian, French, and colonial products. The prejudice 
shown against States butter was truly remarkable. All sorts of trivial 
faults were found with it, some of which were proved to be absolutely 
groundless, and the conclusion was forced that the object was to justify 
grading the American butter low and paying prices for it much below 
its actual comparative merit. These first buyers persistently refused 
to tell the prices at which they sold the butter, although several of 



FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT. 95 

them accepted it upon a definite promise to give this information. 
There is reason to believe that in several instances the butter was 
sold to retailers at prices much above the grade first assigned to it 
and at which the wholesalers made settlement. As the season 
advanced and the true quality of the butter bearing the Department 
brand became known in certain trade circles, it was accorded more 
justice and paid for at relatively better rates. The opinions of mer- 
chants were given in very general terms, yet, on the whole, they were 
favorable to the butter. And it was noticeable that the nearer the 
butter got to the consumers, the better satisfied the people were who 
handled it. Although paid for at second-grade rates, or lower, retail- 
ers generally placed it on sale as first-class goods and got the highest 
market prices for it from their customers. The opinions obtained 
from consumers were nearly all highly commendatory, although in 
most cases they believed it to be "Best Dorset" (English) or Danish 
butter — the favorite brands in the high-class retail trade for cured, 
or salted, butter in London. The prejudice against butter from the 
United States extends to the consumers, and hence the action of 
retailers in general in concealing the identity of American butter 
when they sold it. In a few instances, by special effort, dealers were 
induced to advertise and placard what was sent by the Department, 
as "Selected creamery butter from the United States." To sell it 
readily, as such, they were obliged to place the price rather lower 
than that of butter of greater reputation, but (by them) admitted to 
be no better, on sale at the same place. Twenty-four cents was a 
usual price for the former and 26 for the latter. In one case the 
States butter sold rather slowly at this comparative rate, so the mer- 
chant removed the sign and sold it unidentified at the higher price, 
apparently to the entire satisfaction of the consumers. One mer- 
chant who followed the wishes of the Department throughout the 
season closer than any other retailed the butter under its true name, 
and reported that he was constantly receiving inquiries from custom- 
ers whom he had urged to try it for the first time, asking specifically 
for more of the United States butter. 

Evidence was not lacking that, in contradiction of adverse opinions, 
some merchants really recognized the merits of the States butter. 
All exported by the Department had the same marking (quoted 
above), but no indication of the creamery or even the State from 
which it came. All was represented alike as "Produce of the United 
States." But several merchants who had received sample lots or 
packages from these experimental exports inquired privately of the 
Department agents for the addresses of the creameries at which the 
butter was made, with a view to corresponding with them in regard 
to future supplies. At least two creameries have since made direct 
shipments of butter to England upon orders thus received. 

As already indicated, there were certain features of the trade nota- 



96 BUREAU OP ANIMAL INDUSTRY. 

ble throughout these London trials. The prejudice against anything 
new or from a new source was such that merchants would buy the 
new article, even after becoming convinced of its actual merits, only 
when obtained at a price materially lower than that willingly paid 
for one of established reputation and usually handled, yet no better in 
quality. When the United States butter was sent to a wholesaler, 
its identity was lost completely before reaching the consumer. The 
dealers knew just what they were selling, but they took good care 
that the consumers did not know. The custom of London retailers 
in exposing their butter "stripped" — or turned out from casks, tubs, 
and boxes and held in mass, with no package or marking in sight, to 
be cut from in quantity to suit buyers — contributes to this conceal- 
ment of the true origin of the butter. Dorsetshire has the reputation 
in London of producing the best butter to be found. It occupies the 
place there which "Goshen' 1 and " Orange County" formerly held in 
New York, and which "Elgin Creamery" now holds in this country — 
although the latter term, as used, is actually very general, indefinite, 
and deceptive. Therefore even the best Danish butter is largely 
retailed in London as "Best Dorset." The retail merchant is evi- 
dently willing to deceive his customers so far as he can in this way if 
his margin of profit is thereby increased. As an example, one Lon- 
don merchant who favored the representative of the Department by 
showing his books was found to be purchasing during the same week 
Danish butter at 118 shillings per hundredweight (2o| cents per 
pound), Normandy butter at 106 shillings (23 cents), and United 
States butter at 100 to 96 shillings (22 or 21 cents), and was retailing 
all of them at the same rate of 1 shilling 2 pence (or about 28 cents) 
per pound. And nearly all of it was sold as Dorset butter. 

The usual commission for wholesaling butter in London is 4 per 
cent besides the incidental expenses, and retailers depend upon 
getting an average of 3 or 4 cents a pound for cutting out butter in 
pounds and half pounds to serve to customers. Some make a better 
profit, as above indicated, by using a well-selected, good article, from 
a source lacking special reputation and hence bought at an advan- 
tage. Others sell butter incident to other business at little or no profit 
to attract trade, as many grocers sell sugar. Although the London 
wholesale butter market is subject to great fluctuations in the course 
of the year, retailers endeavor to vary the price to consumers very 
little. During 1897 the best salt butter sold in London at 24 to 28 
cents per pound, seldom going outside these limits in the hands of 
the largest retailers. There was a temporary drop to 22 cents in May 
and June, but choice lots remained at this minimum only a few days. 

The London wholesale market for the year presented features 
familiar in this country, but less extreme, and the extremes reached 
did not accord in time with those of New York. The highest London 
prices realized for choicest Danish butter were 25 and 26 cents in Jan- 



FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT. 97 

uary, September, November, and December, and the lowest was 20£ 
cents in May and June. The average for the year on this grade was 
between 23 and 24 cents. In NeAV York creamery extras were highest 
in February and March, temporarily, and in October, November, and 
December, and lowest in May, the range being from 14 to 24 cents, 
and the average 19 cents per pound. For three months during the 
summer Danish butter stood from 5 to G cents higher in London than 
creamery extras in New York; this was the favorable time for export, 
although States butter was quoted for some weeks in London at about 
18 cents. During certain weeks in the spring creamery extras brought 
nearly as much in New York as best Danish did in London, and in 
October the one actually sold at a higher price in New York than the 
other did in London. The export season Avas therefore short, and was 
delayed at the outset and checked at the close by home conditions. 
The rise began simultaneously in the two great markets early in 
August, with a mutual reaction in September, but after that the ad- 
vance was steadier and longer continued in this country. The public 
quotations of States butter in London were 5 to 7 cents below those 
for Danish all through the earlier months of the year and until fresh 
arrivals from Australian and New Zealand creameries ceased in April. 
Then the gap began to close and in August and September it had been 
reduced more than one-half. Before the end of September, however, 
American creamery butter was worth as much in New York as it 
would bring in London, and exports ceased. These conditions were 
plainly detrimental to establishing a continuous foreign trade. Some 
of these facts and relations are shown graphically in the accompany- 
ing diagram of butter prices in London and New York during 1897. 
(See Appendix XII, p. 135.) 

The question of profit was not regarded as of special importance in 
connection with these experimental exports. Information was the 
prime consideration. Yet the financial results were not disregarded. 
Commercial conditions were adhered to as closely as practicable and 
profit was sought so far as compatible with the more important object. 
But circumstances incident to the trials were unfavorable to gains 
from the purely business standpoint. The quantities of butter handled 
were so small as to be unattractive to buyers, and at the same time 
the incidental expense per pound was unduly large. The shipments 
were irregular and successive sales made through different channels, 
so that the advantages of a regular supply and demand were lost. In 
order to accomplish the main purpose of the work, expenses were 
incurred which would not occur in the usual course of trade. 

The purchases for these exports were made during the seven months 
from April to October, inclusive, at prices ranging from 13 cents per 
pound, paid in Kansas in July, to 25 cents, paid in Connecticut in 
October. The sales in London ranged from 15^ cents in May, to 21f 
cents in October. Butter sent in rather more than half of the several 



98 BUREAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTRY. 

shipments whs sold at more or less profit, and this was the result with 
almost half of the different lots of butter. Notwithstanding the un- 
favorable conditions mentioned, butter from Minnesota and Ohio sold 
at a net profit of 2£ cents per pound, from Kansas at 2 cents profit, 
and from Wisconsin at about 1 cent. The average cost of these lots 
at the creameries where made, at current market rates, was 14|- cents, 
and the average selling price of the same in London was 18£ cents. 
(The fractions stated are not exact, but approximately correct.) 

Every lot of butter obtained in New England, as well as one lot 
from New York, was sold in London at a decided loss. This was due 
partly to the disproportionate cost of transportation to New York, 
already noted, but more particularly to the higher prices which the 
creameries of this region are able to maintain because of the local 
markets for their product. It was plain enough, in advance, that but- 
ter which during the summer was in active demand at 20, 22, and 25 
cents a pound at the creamery door could not be exported at a profit. 

On the other hand, all the butter bought at creameries in Ohio or 
States farther west, at the current wholesale rates for "extras," was 
sold at a net profit in England, with the exception of a few lots at the 
two ends of the export season, when the market relations were known 
to be unfavorable to such transactions. 

All considered, the operations of the year ma} 7 be regarded as rea- 
sonably satisfactory in a business way, as well as otherwise, while at 
the same time a number of points were developed where greater 
economy could be practiced another season. 

Following are a number of extracts from written and verbal state- 
ments made by merchants, retail dealers, consumers, and agents of 
the Department regarding the butter sent to London in the experi- 
ments of 1897, and these include some comparisons with other butters 
found in that market during the same season: 

STATEMENTS FROM WHOLESALE MERCHANTS. 

We have examined the packages of butter ex S. S. St. Paul and are favorably 
impressed with the quality of all. The boxes and tubs of 56 pounds net weight or 
more are the style of packing most likely to command the attention of buyers here, 
and we should recommend strict adherence thereto in fair proportions of each. 

The American trade has been spoiled hitherto by inferior butter. United States 
butter must now make a good name by degrees; the quality must be high and 
uniform, the supply regular. 

This last lot I think a perfect salt butter and very suitable for the English market. 
I have no doubt it would find a ready sale if it could be sold (wholesale) delivered 
to the tradesman during the spring and summer months at 88s. to 102s. per hun- 
dredweight [19 to 22 cents per pound] and in the autumn and winter months from 
108s. to 124s. per hundredweight [23A- to 27 cents per pound]. 

We have carefully inspected your American butter and find the quality and 
condition better than any of the kind we have yet seen, but it contains too much 
liquor, which runs when defrosted. 



FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT. 99 

We have carefully and repeatedly examined the American butter, assisted by 
expert buyers, and all are of the opinion that the boxes and pails are suitable for 
the London trade. The butter is well packed, but contains too much water. 
This causes rapid deterioration directly the frost is gone, and in a normal tem- 
perature the water runs from the butter. 

I have inspected samples of butter and consider the quality to be very fine. 
There is but one fault that I can find, and that is that the firkins contain too great 
a percentage of water. I am sure that this class of butter would be taken up very 
largely by the consumers in London and the suburbs if it could be shipped in large 
quantities regularly throughout the season and the quality kept equal to this lot. 
I should like to take up 2,000 to 3,000 packages per month for my customers. 

My opinion of the States butter sent to me in June is in every way satisfactory 
for our London trade, both in quality and color. I do not hesitate in saying that 
if the manufacture of it can be kept to this standard it will make a very success- 
ful departure in the supply for this market. I shall be glad to receive further 
consignments. 

I am very pleased with the general turnout of these American butters which I 
have had from you. With more attention to details heretofore referred to, there 
would be no difficulty in creating a good demand for butter of this description, 
and prices obtainable would be equal to finest Australian, New Zealand, and 
Canadian butter. 

STATEMENTS FROM RETAIL DEALERS. 

The package of American butter which I got from the lot you indicated to me 
was found in every way satisfactory. By this I mean that the butter was well 
made, carefully packed, and seemed possessed of the very best keeping quality. 
The flavor was most agreeable, and the amount of salt just about right to suit the 
general English taste. I truly believe that a standard of butter as good as this 
would bring the very highest prices on the London market. 

There was a brightness of flavor, a certain bouquet, about that American butter 
which assured me that it had been churned — may I say the milk set and churned? — 
in an atmosphere pure and wholesome, and imparting to it a dewy freshness not 
always found in the very highest priced butters. Great credit is due to somebody 
for preparing such an excellent article, and it affords me great pleasure to say so. 

The quality is only a good second. It does not compare favorably with the 
French, Danish, and colonial butter, the flavor being much poorer and the 
texture weaker. It also contains too much water and salt. Tested after being 
exposed out of the packages for two days, the quality has been found to have 
become impaired, and this shows that the quantity of liquor contained in the but- 
ter causes it to deteriorate rapidly upon exposure to the normal atmosphere. 

For the London trade it savors too much of the Irish "twang,'' is a little too 
salt, and the color too high. The best standard of butter for you to imitate, if I 
may say so, is the finest Danish, which gives satisfaction nearly the whole year 
round. 

The sample of butter I consider remarkably good, grass flavor, and equal to the 
"Best Dorset" in style and make, and if put on our market would undoubtedly 
meet with a ready sale. 

This is, indeed, the best States butter I have tasted in England, but still there 
is room for improvement. A little less water and a trifle more salt would be in 
the right direction. 

The lot of butter received from you I was very much pleased with, being just 
the class of butter which is appreciated by my customers. As you have asked 
my individual opinion, I beg to say that I consider the texture, coloring, and 
5422 2 



100 BUREAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTRY. 

salting can not be improved upon and the flavor is Al; in fact, I regret not being 
certain of obtaining further supplies of this butter. 

You promised me the first parcel of States butter you had in like the last ; I 
should have some. I hope you have not forgotten, as my customers still continue 
to ask for it. If you have any now, please let me have three boxes tomorrow. 
If you have not same quality as before, do not send any. United States butter, 
as a rule, conies very inferior and all goes wrong after being exposed in the air a 
few hours. 

Messrs. H. Brothers purchased box No. VI, Lot I, at 90s. per hundredweight 
[19^ cents per pound] and retailed the same at 1 shilling a pound (24 or 25 cents). 
They considered this butter to be fair in quality, though lacking in body. At 
the same time they purchased other United States butter at 88s. and Irish butter 
at i04s. The United States butter they regarded as rather better than the Irish. 
All three of these butters they retailed at the same price — 1 shilling — being the 
highest price at which butter was then sold to their line of trade. 

STATEMENTS FROM CONSUMERS. 

The sample of United States butter was excellent. It came, saw, and con- 
quered. It was such a decided success that if you can furnish me with the 
address of a place where it can be regularly procured, the dealer can be sure of 
one customer. 

Referring to the small package of American butter lately procured on your 
suggestion, both Mrs. C. and I thought the butter very good, although a little 
more salt than we are accustomed to using. It arrived in splendid condition and 
was beautifully packed. As regards the packing, however, you are doubtless 
aware that in small households it is the custom to buy butter in small quantities, 
probably in pound pats, as by this means it can be obtained more frequently and 
consequently fresher. I should think this o-pound package would be suitable for 
hotels, clubs, and large establishments. 

In regard to the United States butter, of which you put me in the way of get- 
ting a small package lately, won't you please tell me where I can purchase more 
of it? 

I purchased a small quantity of American butter from Messrs. H. Brothers. It 
is very good, similar to Irish creamery butter I have used, but I think the quality 
superior. It is rather light in color, otherwise, in my opinion, it is excellent. 

STATEMENTS FROM REPRESENTATIVES OF THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 

Butter from the United States has not a good reputation at the present time in 
the London market. Consequently the same class of butter as the Danish, or even 
if better in quality, will not bring so high a price on account of the excellent 
reputation of the latter. Of course, this applies mainly to the wholesale trade, as 
the butter entirely loses its identity when sold to the retailer. Salt butter is, as a 
rule, retailed in London as "Best Dorset," irrespective of its actual place of 
manufacture. 

So much inferior butter from the United States has been sent to England that 
some of the dealers laugh at us as soon as we mention United States butter to 
them. Consequently we have had much difficulty in getting some dealers to 
handle the butter at all. Had we been trying to sell the butter outright to them 
they would have had nothing to do with us. 

Some dealers have objected to handling our blatter, fearing, on the one hand, it 
might not suit their customers, and, on the other, thinking it might please them 
so well that they, the dealers, would be embarrassed by being unable to procure a 
further supply of the same, or other equally good. 



FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT. 101 

These people dislike very much to acknowledge that the United State3 butter is 
better than that which has a good reputation, because, while not so admitted, 
they are able to buy it at a low rate wholesale and then get full price fur it when 
sold to the consumer. Yet I have repeatedly compared the United States butter 
with the Danish and "Best Dorset " with friends who are in the butter trade and 
have invariably found the butter of the trial shipments superior in quality, flavor, 
and body. 

The butter trade of London is a very queer one. Even the largest consumers 
have only a daily supply left at their doors. This is done to save the cost of 
private refrigerators and ice, and is one reason why large dealers object to the 
family-sized packages. Many people only purchase a half pound at a time. The 
hotels and restaurants have contracts with retail houses to supply them with a 
certain quantity of prints ready to put on the table every day. Still, I think the 
oblong and square boxes, holding from 3 to 7 pounds, would be very useful in a 
suburban trade where it was not convenient to have butter brought to the door 
every day. 

The butter in the cases of carriers, in half-pound prints, was of a very good 
quality, the only objection being the fact of being in such prints. Retailers 
customarily buy the half firkin, or 56-pound box, and divide the butter up into 
pound or half-pound rolls, wrapping each roll with parchment paper bearing the 
dealer's name and address. I firmly believe, however, that with a little time and 
work spent upon the introduction of the print package, it could be made to sell 
largely in the London and suburban market, provided, of course, that the package 
is not too expensive. 

The butter now coming in the trial shipments is undoubtedly better in quality 
than most of the Danish and Dorset — just as good in flavor and much better in 
body. 

The fact of the stores, as well as & Son, selling this butter at Is. 

and Is. Id. [about 26 cents] a pound, which are the very highest current retail 
prices, proves beyond doubt that the butter was of excellent quality when made, 
was well packed, and arrived in London in fine condition. 

Messrs. and , as well as the two houses already named, told me that 

this United States butter compared favorably with the '-Best Dorset. " The latter 
is the best salt butter on the London market, some of it being made in Dorset- 
shire, but most of it coming from Denmark. 

^Yherever possible, we have ascertained from the retailers the prices obtained 
for the butter sold from our different lots, and find that they realized the full 
price for the best butter, Is. and Is. Id. a pound, according to the locality of the 
store. This proves conclusively that if the creameries of the United States will 
put up the same grade of salt butter, and are able to guarantee the weight and 
quality, it will not be long before such butter will bring the highest price in the 
London wholesale market. But it must be sold squarely, in the right way, and the 
returns not eaten up by excessive charges. 

In my opinion, if the United States butter is honestly made, properly packed, 
carefully transported, and then fairly handled in this country (Great Britain), it 
will soon be able to compete with the best Danish or any other first-class butter 
that is sent to British markets. 

Many butter dealers in London are very anxious, owing to our efforts here this 
year, to handle United States butter; but in order to do so successfully and build 
up a remunerative trade they must be guaranteed a regular supply of butter of 
uniform good quality. Those who had handled butter from the States previous 
to these Government consignments complain that it has not been uniform, and that 



102 



BUREAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTRY. 



no reliability could be placed on the comparative merits of successive consign- 
ments. This has injured the trade much, and fear of this prevents building it 
up. These difficulties could be overcome by the Department supervising the 
butter and cheese export trade in a way similar to that done for live cattle, 
dressed beef, and packed meats. If all butter exported could be examined by an 
expert inspector and given a Government certificate of purity and quality, it 
would give such butter a standing in the markets of Great Britain and enhance 
its value to a great extent. 

Box No. 7— E I retained for trial at my house. This box was opened November 
13. 1897, and I supplied a family of six persons until February 16, 1898, or about 
three months. During this time it was kept in a larder without ice, and remained 
sweet, firm, and good throughout. If we had been using butter purchased at the 
retail stores, such butter being either Danish, Dorset, or Australian— the best salt 
butter on the London market— I know from my previous accounts that we would 
have consumed 67+ pounds. There was but 57i pounds in the States box. I con- 
sider this another strong argument in favor of our United States butter, and also 
proof that such butter does not contain too much water, but is actually firmer, 
more solid, than most other salt butter sold in London. 

Comments are necessary upon these expressions of opinion, else 
they might be misleading. 

English dealers generally seemed to consider it necessary to find 
some fault with butter from the United States, and as most of them 
were already convinced that butter from this country was, as a rule, 
soft and briny, their criticism was very apt to include these points. 
Several of them referred to other butters as having the desirable 
"body" which ours lacked. But the facts, determined with an 
exactness far beyond the power of human judgment, did not sustain 
these complaints. 

The following is a tabular comparison of the water and fat found 
in the butters embraced in the Department trial exports as the result 
of chemical analyses made in this country and in London, with the 
same facts as to the composition of selected lots of the best butter to 
be found in London from nine foreign sources. The highest and 
lowest results are given in each case, as well as the averages obtained : 

Comparative composition of butter, United States and foreign. 



Butter: Where made and where 
analyzed. 



United States: 

American analyses 

London analyses 

Foreign, United States analyses 



Water. 



Lowest. Highest. Average. 



Per cent. 
8.12 
8.08 
8.62 



Per cent. 
12.87 
11.73 
15.50 



Butter fat. 



Lowest. Highest. Average 



Per cent. \Per cent. 
10.85 84.21 

10. 13 86. 71 

12. 40 78. 50 



Per cent. 
89.49 
90.09 
89.27 



Per cent. 
86.84 
88.06 

84.57 



These figures show at a glance the much greater dryness of the 
butter from the United States, especially when determined by the 
London official analyst, and the superior richness of the States in 
pure butter fat. Only one lot of the export butter showed less than 



FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT. 103 

85 per cent fat and none reached 13 per cent water by home analyses. 
The English analyst reported only three cases above 11 per cent of 
water, and made an average of over 88 per cent fat. Among the for- 
eign butters, half were above 13 per cent water and only four reached 
88 per cent of fat. The produce sent over by the Department, there- 
fore, gave its buyers (according to English tests) three and a half 
pounds more of actual butter in every hundredweight than was found 
in the best foreign articles. The English Dorset, regarded as a stand- 
ard, was found carrying almost 14 per cent water (which is not exces- 
sive) and only 84£ per cent fat. The Danish, constantly referred to 
as a pattern, was found by the Department to average much better — 
10.45 per cent water and 86.79 per cent fat; but this is better than 
given by Danish authorities, who claim the water content of their 
export butter ranges from 12 to 16 per cent and averages about 14^ 
per cent. There are other points for judging butter on a chemical 
basis. The foreign matter in butter is represented by the casein, or 
curd; of this, the less the better. The foreign samples examined 
contained from 0.48 to 2.40 per cent of casein (with sugar, albumen, 
etc.) and averaged 1.03 per cent. The States butter exported con- 
tained 0.33 to 1.30 per cent and averaged 0.81 per cent. Besides 
this, none of the United States butter contained preservatives of an3^ 
kind, while all of the foreign butters, excepting the English, Danish, 
Finnish, and New Zealand, were "borated" more or less, some quite 
heavily. Yet some of the foreign butter was exceptionally well made ; 
and the Danish and French particularly, even although in some 
cases testing pretty high in water, appeared to be dry and had a tex- 
ture or body superior to most of that included in the experimental 
exports. 

As to the degree of color preferred for butter, the opinions of mer- 
chants and consumers in London differ materially. It is evident that 
the London market does not want its winter butter colored much, but 
in summer it accepts the "natural June color" of grass butter with- 
out complaint. On the whole, the conditions in this respect seem to 
be about the same as in New York. It was noticeable that in the 
lots of foreign butter brought from London as representative of the 
preference of that market several were decidedly deeper in tint than 
the average of the best in New York at the same time. The Danish 
packages were included among those having the most color. Where 
complaints are made in London of too much color in American but- 
ter, it may be generally attributed to sheer prejudice and not true 
market judgment. 

Opinions as to salt differ still more and naturally vary with indi- 
vidual taste. Three or four English merchants examining the same 
lot of States butter separately gave as many different judgments as 
to the salting. And the same critic declared one lot of butter too salt 
and another too fresh, when the records of the making, sustained by 



104 BUREAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTRY. 

chemical analysis, proved the former actually to contain less salt than 
the latter. The facts as to the London market judgment in this par- 
ticular seem to be that the very best butter should have no salt, and 
that the more salt butter contains the lower the grade to which it is 
assigned. Yet if butter is to have any salt, from one-fourth to two- 
thirds of an ounce per pound will be accepted, as tastes vary, and the 
average preference seems to be for half an ounce, or from 2£ to 3 per 
cent of salt remaining in the butter as placed in market. 

Grading butter closely, or scoring it upon a scale of points, is a 
matter of individual judgment, but to secure figures which have any 
value for purposes of comparison, the work must be done by an ex- 
pert. Such a comparison of the different lots sent to London by the 
Department, with the best from other countries found in that market, 
was much to be desired, made from the British standpoint of perfec- 
tion. As already explained, the expert necessary for the purpose was 
not to be found in London. In place of such a comparison we only 
have the general expressions of merchants; those which have been 
quoted are in most cases very indefinite and contain no satisfactory 
comparisons. The few cases given and others in which comparisons 
were made, upon being merged in a "composite" form, seem to place 
the best States butter as second to the Danish, Swedish, and best 
French, and no more than equal to the best Irish, Australian, and 
Canadian. Yet a good many persons were entirely satisfied with our 
butter, and the evidence is conclusive that it was retailed to consum- 
ers in nearly all cases at the very highest prices for butter containing 
any salt. 

The definite lessons from these transactions are not numerous, but 
the following conclusions and recommendations may be deduced, in- 
cluding some repetitions from the foregoing report upon the work : 

The demand for butter of good quality in Great Britain and the 
steady increase in this demand offers a market for large quantities of 
the best creamery product of the United States. 

The relative rates have been such for a number of years in the two 
countries that during the greater portion of every year it is probable 
that first-class butter can be profitably exported from America to 
England. 

For a time, butter from the United States will be most acceptable 
in British markets to take the place of the large arrivals of fresh 
"Colonial" or Australian butter, which begin to fall off in April and 
do not recur until October. But this is a secondary position commer- 
cially and should not satisfy American ambition. There is no reason 
why butter from this country should not compete successfully with 
Canadian and Australian butter in the markets of the United King- 
dom at all seasons of the year. Moreover, if the supply be made 
regular and the quality brought to a standard which may be easily 
attained and maintained, States butter is certain soon to take place, 



FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT. 105 

in British estimation, as the equal of Danish and other supplies now 
ranking first. 

The disadvantage of distance and the difficulties of transportation 
can be overcome. At present the facilities are better for delivering 
butter in Great Britain from Canada than from the United States. 
Effort will be necessary to improve the conditions in this respect, as 
already explained. 

The local requirements of markets in different parts of England 
and Scotland will have to be further studied and care taken to pre- 
pare butter especially to meet these varied tastes, in order to insure 
success. As a rule, the British demand a butter freer from brine, 
more waxy in texture, firmer, or "better in body" than the average 
"extras" of the American creamery. For export butter, more time 
and care in making and packing are essential; less attention to 
securing a "quick" high flavor and more attention to good body. 
The flavor may be mild, rather slow in development, but should be 
"clean" and uniform month after month. 

It seems probable that pasteurizing cream and the use of pure cul- 
tures for ripening will be well adapted to making successful export 
butter, and probably necessary where special skill in cream-ripening 
is lacking. The color in British markets is permitted to vary some- 
what with the season, but very little artificial coloring is desirable at 
any time, and natural grass yellow is generally regarded as too deep. 
Some English markets prefer butter very pale, or a light shade of 
straw color. In salt there is almost as much difference in taste as in 
our domestic markets, with a tendency there, as here, to use butter 
with less and less salt. 

For packages, nothing is now so acceptable as the rectangular or 
block form, modified by a slight taper to the four sides. The top is thus 
a little larger and the contents can be easily turned out ("stripped") 
in good shape. This pyramidal form has been adopted by the best 
Irish creameries. Next in favor stands the cubical box, used for two 
or three years in Australia, Canada, and the United States. Then 
follows the oblong box from New Zealand. All these packages should 
contain, when sold, 56 pounds, or a full half hundredweight of but- 
ter, but should not run to 57 pounds or over. The Danish kiel, or 
cask, is in special favor in Great Britain, simply because it is recog- 
nized as meaning good Danish butter. The chief objection to the 
American creamery tub has been already stated ; also the fact that 
British buyers will not quarrel over shape and style of package, or 
even its size, if once convinced that the butter in it suits them. 

Packages for export should be strong enough to stand a long jour- 
ney and some hard usage; lumber five-eighths of an inch thick is 
none too heavy for cubical 56-pound boxes, or others similar. All 
packages should be well finished, with tight joints and well-fitted 
covers. Merchants prefer covers fastened with screws, but these 



106 BUREAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTRY. 

must not exceed six in number, as customs officers are impatient, and 
where covers can not be easily removed they break open the packages 
to be inspected. A better fitting cover for boxes than heretofore 
used, and some simple but efficient fastener, like the tub clip or fas- 
tener, are needed package improvements. Linings, sufficient and 
strong for protection, are essential. Burlap bags to cover packages, 
whether boxes or tubs, are advised, especially for exports made in hot 
weather. 

Shrinkage must be provided for. The usual loss is about one-half 
of one per cent on the net weight; the range of loss one-fourth to 
three-fourths of one per cent. The Department investigations were 
not conclusive on this point, but if 57 pounds of weighed butter of 
suitable texture are packed into an export box, the net weight in any 
market of Great Britain, within a month's time, will be pretty certain 
to exceed 56 pounds and avoid allowance being claimed for short 
weight. 

Success will doubtless reward the enterprise of anyone who will 
export fine butter in pound prints or conveuient small packages for 
delivery unbroken to consumers, and press it persistently in London 
and other good English markets, but the desired end will be slow to 
reach. In such a venture it will be necessary to allow for shrinkage 
of weight on every small package, roll or print, as the market laws 
require full weight in all commodities at retail and are strictly 
enforced. 

Export butter, if it is to have suitable transportation facilities and 
to be retailed when two to three weeks old, should be well chilled, 
but not frozen, before shipped from the creamery, and then carried 
to destination at a temperature held between 31° and 45° F. Care 
should be taken to avoid a rise above 50° at any time before exposure 
for retail. 

For all lots less than a carload, special arrangements should be 
made in advance for proper attention by agents of transportation 
companies, to avoid delay and exposure of butter at transfer points; 
and unless the dispatch companies will perforin like service efficiently 
at the place of export, and foreign consignees are of proved reliabil- 
ity, prudence demands the assistance of experienced export agents or 
brokers at the seaboard terminals. Experienced exporters must con- 
tinue to conduct the bulk of our export trade for a long time to come. 

It is evident that successfully to introduce fine creamery butter 
from the United States and establish a demand for it in British mar- 
kets, with full recognition of its merits, there must be a considerable 
period of persistent effort, during which there will be some unsatis- 
factory results. English merchants of standing and in control of a 
reliable high- class trade must be interested in the effort and induced 
to act as agents for States butter. These agents must then be regu- 
larly supplied with butter uniform in quality and quantity and suited 



FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT. 



107 



to the markets they represent for seven or eight months in the year. 
The desired end will be sooner attained if the supply is continued 
throughout the year, whether or not the returns are satisfactory for 
all the months. No regular demand can be built up unless retail 
merchants of a desirable class can be continuously supplied, so as to 
secure and hold customers for the new line of goods; and the condi- 
tions must be constantly insisted upon that the butter shall be always 
marked, known, and sold as produce of the United States. In short, 
States butter will have to be introduced to Great Britain by enter- 
prising, persistent, long-continued effort, supplying only the best, 
and always as States butter, just as a place for American beef was 
made in those same markets. 

The Department can not establish this foreign trade in high-class 
butter or even commence it; but it may do something toward ascer- 
taining the conditions which control such trade, present and prospec- 
tive, and assist in making them known to many interested parties. 

The results of the trials made during the year 1897 appear to jus- 
tify a repetition of the experimental shipments in 1898 upon an 
enlarged scale and in a broader field, to include, besides butter, other 
perishable farm products which this country has to sell. 



APPENDIX I. 



EXPORTS OF BUTTER FROM THE UNITED STATES. 

[Selected and representative fiscal years, ending June 30.] 



Years. 


Pounds. 


Years. 


Pounds. 


Years. 


Pounds. 


1790 


470,440 
1,822,341 
1,620,538 
1,069,024 
1,728,212 
3,785,993 
3,876,175 
7,640,914 
21,559,892 


1870 

1873... . 

1875 

1877 

1878 


2,019,288 
4,518,844 
6,360,827 
21,527,242 
21,837,117 
38,248,016 
39,236,658 
14,794,305 
21,683,148 


1888 

1890 

1891 

1892 

1893 

1894 .. 

1895 

1896 

1897 


10, 455, 651 


1800 


29,748,042 
15,187,114 
15, 047, 246 


1810. 


1820 


1830. 


8, 920, 107 
11,812,092 


1840 


1879 


1850 


1880 


5, 598, 812 


I860 


1882 


19,373,913 
31,345,224 


1865 


1885 







Pounds. 

For the twelve months ending December 31, 1896 27, 220, 218 

For the twelve months ending December 31, 1897 30,914,783 



108 



BUREAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTRY. 



APPENDIX II. 

ANNUAL EXPORTS OF IMITATION BUTTER AND OLEO OIL PROM 
THE UNITED STATES. 



Years. 


Imitation 
butter. 


Oleo oil. 


Years. 


Imitation 
butter. 


Oleo oil. 


1884 

1885 


Pounds. 

1,537,683 

761,938 

928,053 

834,574 

1,729,327 

2,192,047 

3,535,936 


Pounds. 

37,785,159 
37,130,217 
27,729,885 
45,712,985 
30,146,595 
28,102,534 
68,218,098 


1891 

1892 .-- 


Pounds. 
1,986,743 
1,610,837 
3,479,322 
3,898,950 
10, 100, 897 
6,063,699 
4,864,351 


Pounds. 
80,231,085 
91,581,703 


1886 


1893 


113,939,363 


1887 


1894_ -. 


123,295,895 


1888 


1895- 


78,098,878 




1896 --. 


103,276,756 


1890 


1897 


113,506,152 









APPENDIX III. 
IMPORTS OF BUTTER INTO THE UNITED KINGDOM. 

[For the countries named and for the stated calendar year.] 



Countries. 


1886. 


1890. 


1894. 


1895. 


1896. 


1897. 




Cwt. 
43,390 
31,533 

400,556 
1,069,098 


Cwt. 

84,553 

34,318 

834,749 

1,094,097 


Cwt. 

29,996 

20,887 

1,102,493 

1,431,459 


Cwt. 

66, 932 

38,949 

1,162,770 

1,557,011 


Cwt. 

141,553 

88,357 

1,228,784 

1,579,253 


Cwt. 
154, 196 




109,402 




1,334,738 




1,619,475 






Total - - - 


1,543,566 


2,027,717 


2,574,835 


2,825,662 


3,037,947 


3,217,801 







APPENDIX IV. 

LIST OF SHIPMENTS, WITH DATES OF EXPORT AND NAMES OF 
CREAMERIES AT WHICH BUTTER WAS MADE EXPRESSLY FOR 
THESE TRIALS. 



Ex- 
port. 



Date. 



Creameries. 



I. May 5 



II. 
III. 



IV. 

V. 



VI. 



VII. 
VIII. 



IX. 



May 26 
June 16 



July 7 
July 28 



Aug. 25 



Sept. 15 
Oct. 6 

Oct. 37 



College Creamery, State Agricultural College, Ames, Iowa. 

Diamond Creameries, Monticello, Iowa. 

Hillside Creamery, Cornish, N. H. 

College Creamery, Ames, Iowa. 

Jersey Hill Creamery, Ryegate, Vt. 

Star Lake Creamery, Strout, Minn. 

Conway Creamery, Conway, Mass. 

Hesston Creamery, Newton, Kans. 

Mount Pleasant Cooperative Creamery, Mount Pleasant, Ohio. 

Bentley & Son's Creamery, Circleville, Ohio. 

Jensen Creamery Company, Beloit, Kans. 

Sennett Creamery, Sennett, N. Y. 

Edmunds Creamery, Sherman, N. Y. 

Hilton & Nimmo's Creamery, Knapps, N. Y. 

Hoards's Creameries, Port Atkinson, Wis. 

College Creamery, Ames, Iowa. 

Vernon Creamery, Rockville, Conn. 

Big Stone Creamery, Big Stone City, S. Dak. 

Star Lake Creamery, Strout, Minn. 



FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT. 



109 



APPENDIX V. 

EXAMPLE OF REPORT MADE UPON EVERY LOT OF BUTTER 
PREPARED FOR AND EXPORTED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF 
AGRICULTURE. 

From College Creamery, Ames, Iowa. Lot A, of Export VIII, October: 

1. The cows supplying milk to creamery are mostly grades. Shorthorn blood 

predominates. 

2. During the time milk was produced from which this butter was made the 

cows were at pasture and without additional feed. 

3. The whole milk is hauled daily to the creamery by the producers, the average 

distance hauled by the patrons being about five miles. 

4. The cream is obtained by passing the milk through a De Laval separator 

immediately after reaching the creamery, at a temperature of 85° F. 

5. The average per cent of fat in the milk received is 4, and in the cream, as 

separated, 23. 

6. The cream is cooled to 75" F. and held from twelve to eighteen hours for 

ripening; the temperature meantime varies from 69° to 7o . 

7. A portion of the cream was pasteurized, and to that, after cooling down, a 

homemade skim-milk " starter " was added. 

8. Mann's test was applied to determine acidity of the cream, and the degrees 

noted as shown in churning record below. 

9. No coloring matter was used. One-half ounce of salt used per pound of 

butter. 

10. Working: The butter was worked two minutes, incorporating the salt, then 

allowed to stand in cool room for eighteen hours, worked a second time 
four minutes, and packed at once. 

11. The skim-milk from separator was tested and showed barely a trace of fat. 

The buttermilk was tested and showed one-tenth of 1 per cent of fat. 

12. Very warm weather prevailed during the days this butter was made — about 

70° F. in the morning, and from 83° to 90° during the midday hours. 

Churning report on butter made for Export VIII. 



Information required. 



Milk separated at degrees F 

Per cent of fat in cream 

Cream ripened at degrees F 

Acidity of cream at churning 

Cream churned at degrees F 

Buttermilk, temperature when drawn, degrees F 

Length of time in churning, minutes 

Butter washed, number of times 

Wash water, temperature, degrees F 

Butter worked, times .. 



Number and date of 
churning. 



First, 
Sept. 27. 



Second, 
Sept. 29. 



Third, 
Sept. 30. 



85 
23 
73 
38 
52 
54 
70 

1 
47 

2 



Description of packages as filled: 

First churning: Tubs, A 1, A 2; spruce boxes, A 7, A 8; poplar boxes, A 

13, A 14. 
Second churning: Tubs, A 3, A 4; spruce boxes, A 9, A 10; poplar boxes, 

A 15, A 16. 
Third churning: Tubs, A 5, A 6; spruce boxes, A 11, A 12, poplar boxes, 

A 17, A 18. 



110 BUREAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTRY. 

All packages of third churning, butter made from pasteurized cream. 

Packages parchment lined: A 1, A 2, A 9, A 10, A 17, and A 18. 

Packages lined with paraffine coating: A 3, A 4, A 11, A 12, A 13, A 14. 

Packages covered with burlap sacks: Tubs, 1, 3, 5; boxes, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17. 

Weights, gross and net, of several packages as per list attached. 

Butter well chilled in packages until October 1 . Delivered to refrigerator car 
on Chicago and Northwestern Railroad at Ames, 7 a.m.; waybill 15; Pennsylvania 
Railroad car 41241; train No. 38; weather, cloudy; temperature, 69° F. 

G. L. McKay, Superintendent Creamery. 

Ames, Iowa, October 2, 1897. 

APPENDIX VI. 

PASTEURIZING CREAM FOR BUTTER. 

INTRODUCTION. 

In connection with preparing butter especially suited to export, the question 
arose as to the efficacy of pasteurizing cream for the purpose of improving the 
keeping quality of the butter and also of producing an article more uniform in 
texture and flavor. Upon inquiry it was learned that, although several creameries 
in different States had made some experiments in pasteurization both of the whole 
milk and the cream, none had fully adopted the system or acquired experience 
which gave definite results. 

In the course of correspondence on the subject with different parties, the late 
J.L.Hoffman, president of the Hesston Creamery Company, of Newton, Kans. 
(also at that time president of the Kansas State Dairy Association), offered the 
use of his creamery, with its supplies and working force, for any experiments in 
pasteurizing which this Department might wish to conduct. This location, in a 
new creamery district, far distant from large markets either at home or abroad, 
and subject to extremely hot weather during its active butter-producing season, 
presented conditions particularly favorable for such experiments. 

Accordingly, Mr. J. H. Monrad, of Winnetka, 111., special field agent for the 
Dairy Division, was detailed to proceed to Newton, Kans., and supervise during 
the month of June a series of experiments in making butter for export from cream 
pasteurized for the purpose. Mr. Monrad approved the selection of the Hesston 
Creamery because it seemed desirable to make the experiments under normal con- 
ditions at a creamery of average character. If pasteurization proved desirable 
under such circumstances, it would emphasize the usefulness of the practice more 
than if much better results were obtained from experiments at a carefully man- 
aged dairy school or at some new and perfectly equipped creamery. 

Considering season, place, and general conditions, it was not expected to make 
butter of the highest quality, but a good article was sought, suitable for export, 
and opportunity to make fair comparisons in the quality when fresh, and in the 
keeping properties, of considerable quantities of butter made from the same lot of 
cream, under good control, partly treated by usual factory methods and partly 
pasteurized. 

Recognizing the difficulty of obtaining cold water in Kansas for cooling cream 
at separating stations and keeping it at a proper temperature during the haul to 
the central factory, Mr. Monrad had made the origfhal suggestion at the State 
dairy convention at Abilene (1896) that it might be expedient to heat cream at 
stations immediately after separating, or to separate at a high temperature and 
haul the cream hot to the main factory, where pasteurization might be completed. 
Mr. Monrad was authorized, in connection with the other work proposed, to make 
a practical test of this suggestion. 



FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT. Ill 

The full report of this work follows. Although the bulk of butter made in these 
experiments passed at once out of his possession, was shipped to New York, and 
thence exported to London, the data regarding it was preserved and furnished 
to Mr. Monrad to embody in his report. 

It is not felt that the results of these experiments in Kansas are at all conclu- 
sive, but they constitute an instructive contribution to experience in pasteurizing 
for making butter during the early stages of this practice in America. 

H. E. A. 

Record of Experiments in Pasteurization made at the Hesston Creamery, 
Newton, Kans., June, 1897. 

• By J. .H. Monrad, 
Special Agent of Dairy Division, Bureau of Animal Industry. 

Pasteurizing cream for butter-making can not in itself be properly called an 
experiment, as the practical benefit of this system was long ago proved in Den- 
mark and elsewhere. But the work to be here reported was truly experimental 
under the conditions which existed and bore upon it. 

My first duty was to select the apparatus needed and set it up at the creamery. 
From previous study of the subject, I at once discarded all tank heaters and 
sought " continuous " appliances as being the only ones practical for creamery 
use. Of these but two were found on the market, being made and sold by A. H. 
Barber & Co. and by the De Laval Separator Company. Each firm generously 
placed an outfit at my service, free of charge. These were forwarded to New- 
ton, and I followed, reaching that place the 8th of June. Before reporting the 
experiment I give herewith a short description of the creamery and its regular 
system of butter-making. 

THE NEWTON CREAMERY. 

The milk is taken from an elevated driveway and dumped into the weigh can, 
which is on a small platform, high enough to run it into the milk vat. The latter 
is on a lower and larger platform in the separator room; on the same platform 
is also the cream vat for receiving the cream from the ten skimming stations 
connected with this factory. 

From the receiving vat a 1^-inch pipe 8 feet long conducts the milk to the milk 
heater and thence to the separators. There are two separators of the Alpha No. 1 
pattern, which are on the same level as the cream room. The door to the latter 
is near the separators and the cream is carried in 10-gallon cans to the ripening 
vats in that room. 

In the separator room is the wash tank, the 15-horsepower engine, and a No. 3 
Barber refrigerator compressor. The boiler room, with a 20-horsepower boiler, is 
on a lower level, and still lower is the cellar. Here is the churn room with two 
combined churns and workers (a Disbrow and a Fargo) and also a Mason worker. 
Also in this basement and under the cream room is the printing room, 14 by 12 
feet; an ante-storage room, 14 by 8 feet; and the refrigerator, 14 by 15 feet — all 
cooled with direct expansion coils. 

In the churn room the floor is of fine flagstones, but not being laid in cement 
some of the smell in the room may have been caused by seepage into the sand on 
which the'stones rest. In one corner is a sink hole from which the buttermilk, as 
well as washings, etc., are pumped into two lai*ge elevated tanks outside; from 
these the washings are hauled and scattered over a field, the city authorities hav- 
ing prohibited the use of an adjacent sluggish creek as means of drainage. This 
is not only a very unlucky situation, but an expensive arrangement, and the 
owners have a very difficult problem to solve. Indeed, the solution may lose the 



112 BUREAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTRY. 

town of Newton the creamery, with its appendix of a large cash trade from the 
patrons, as it would be cheaper to build anew elsewhere than to provide a private 
sewer for a long distance. 

Above the churn room and just opposite and on the same level as the separators 
is a storage room and in it the pump which raises the drainage to the outside 
tanks. This room was the only space available for the pasteurizing apparatus, 
and the smell from the pump was kept down by repeated rinsings with limewater. 
The creamery company kindly allowed me to pull down the partition between this 
and the separating room, giving better access and more fresh air. 

The cream room, 15 by 35 feet, is newly built, well insulated, and has a brine 
tank, 6 by 11 feet and 30 inches deep, suspended close under the ceiling. The tem- 
perature of this room was from 52° to 55° J during the week, running up to 60° or 
62° Sunday evening when the compressor had not run after 12 o'clock Saturday 
night. In this room are ten vats U-formed, made of tinned copper; they are 104 
feet long and 2 feet wide and hold about 1,500 pounds. There are no cooling 
jackets to the vats, and, cooling by air being too slow, ice is put directly into the 
cream. The vats are placed one a little higher than the other, so that enough slant 
may be given to the conductor which leads the cream to the churns below. A 
rotary pump circulates the brine (when desired) through a Bair copper cooler, 
and over this the cream flows between the receiving tank and the vats in the 
cream room. 

In one test, the cream, flowing at the rate of about 1,200 pounds per hour, was 
cooled 10°, but the company has secured two more coolers of same size and will 
thus have better control of cream received from outlying stations. 

The system of working is as follows: At 6 a. m. the day force arrives. W. S. 
Andis takes charge of the boiler, engine, compressor, and the separators. S. W. 
Hank receives the milk, which comes in slowly at first, and so much so, indeed, 
that it is often half past 8 before separating can begin. In the cellar the chief 
butter maker, D. S. Brandt, prepares for work in the printing room, while his son 
makes shipping boxes, and in the churn room J. R. Lewellen and N. P. Reed take 
turns at churning and helping in the printing room. As a rule, the churns are 
full of cream in the morning and often one has been already churned by the night 
man, C. S. Stouffer. 

Let us first follow the work of Mr. Andis. He starts the deep- well pump, which 
gives an alkaline, salty water, and runs this over the Bair cream cooler, filling 
one of the cream vats with water at 52° or 54°, ready to be used for washing the 
butter by running it into the churns by the cream conductor. He starts the sep- 
arators and carries the cream into the vat, where it is allowed to cool, ripening 
without a "starter."' About 11 o'clock the separating is finished and then he 
cleans his separators. In the afternoon he helps Mr. Hank in cleaning the cream 
cans as they come in. 

The first load of cream arrives at 1.30 or 2 p. m. and is dumped through a large 
fine wire strainer into the receiving vat and run over the cooler, being, as a rule, 
reduced to 66° or 70°. This is also allowed to ripen without a starter, and is 
indeed often half ripe before it arrives ; acidity in one case was 21.5 cc. When 
there is any half -churned lumpy cream left on the strainer it is melted in a water 
bath and stirred into the cream. 

The rest of the afternoon is occupied by the two men named in receiving cream, 
cleaning cans, and cleaning upstairs. Mr. Andis also has his boiler and engine, 
etc. , to attend to. 

The night man keeps the compressor running and receives cream, which comes 
in as late as midnight, washes the cans, and cools the cream by putting crushed 
ice in it and stirring. This cream, as a rule, stands at 55° or 56° in the morning, 



1 Fahrenheit thermometer in all cases in this report. 



FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT. 113 

at which temperature it is run into the churns. The acidity of the cream churned 
the first day of my visit was 20 to 23 cc. by the test. The buttermilk was 60° to 61°, 
showed an acidity of 81 to 33 cc. , and was quite salt from the previous churning. 

After drawing the buttermilk, the granules are washed with the water cooled 
as described above, salted with one ounce salt, and worked in the churn from two 
and a half to three minutes. It is then left thirty to sixty minutes and given a 
second working, this time six to eight revolutions on the Mason worker, and then 
either packed in tubs or boxes or taken to the other room to be made into prints 
or rolls. The refrigerator is kept at about 42°. 

I at once set about ascertaining the acidity of the milk as delivered at the 
creamery and the general conditions there under which the work must be done. 
To my great regret both were found less satisfactory than expected. The acidity 
of the milk as determined by the Mann test (one-tenth normal to 50 cc.) varied 
from 9 cc. to 20 cc, the average of the last in the vat being 16 cc. But the cream 
as it came from the separator showed 8.5 cc. at 10 a. m., 9.6 cc. at 11.15 a. m., and 
10.6 cc. at noon, when the separating was finished; consequently I had no fear of 
being unable to pasteurize it. 

The creamery possesses an ice machine and has a very fine cream room, but 
part of the building is old and the churn room is located in the basement, where 
the air is musty. I saw no way of giving pasteurization a perfect test unless a 
complete annex was newly built and equipped, but undertook to improve existing 
conditions. 

On the 14th we unpacked and commenced placing the apparatus, and I also 
tested the milk and cream for acidity. The temperature in the shade was 95° and 
the acidity of the first can of cream was 9 cc, the second 10 cc, the fourth 12 cc, 
and the last 14 cc The smell in the churn room was somewhat improved by the 
use of lime and an improved ventilating fan in one window, but anyone con- 
versant with pasteurization will acknowledge I had a right to be discouraged. 

Indeed, I wrote to Jensen Bros., of Beloit, Kans. , asking them to let me know 
the acidity of their cream, whether the conditions were right at their creamery, 
and whether I would be welcome if I decided to move there. This was done 
pending the effect of the following circular letter which I sent to the patrons of 
the Hesston Creamery Company : 

Newton, Kans. , June 15, 1897. 
To the patrons of Hesston Creamery: 

Dear Sirs: The Agricultural Department at Washington is about making an 
experimental shipment of butter from this creamery. 

In order to give it keeping quality the cream is to be pasteurized (heated to 160 D 
and cooled). 

I regret to say that I find nearly all the milk delivered too sour for this pur- 
pose, and hence I ask the favor of your help for two weeks by taking a little extra 
care. 

First, in cleanliness in milk; next, in the care of the cans. They should be 
emptied at once and rinsed with cold or lukewarm water, then scrubbed with 
soda or lye water, rinsed again, and finally rinsed with boiling water and placed 
without wiping in a slanting position (bottom up) where the air is pure. 

Same care should be taken in cleaning milk pails, strainers, etc. 

When milking, place the shipping can in cold water and leave the cover off, 
stirring often, until the milk is as cold as the air, then cover. 

The morning's milk should also be cooled, even if only for twenty minutes. If 
stirred or dipped, that will be a great help. 

When hauling the milk cover the cans with a wet blanket and keep it wet until 
delivered. * 

By doing this you will serve your own interest and not compel me to give up 
the experiment and report that the Kansas farmers can not deliver milk sweet 
enough for this purpose. 

Hoping you will help me all you can for a couple of weeks, I remain, 
Yours, truly, 

J. H. Monrad, 
Field Agent . hair;/ Division, U. S. Department of Agriculture. 



114 BUREAU OP ANIMAL INDUSTRY. 

Meanwhile I tried to pasteurize the cream as it was and made some preliminary 
churnings, the details of which will be given later. 

From Jensen Bros. I received by wire a hearty invitation; but the following 
letter showed me that the average condition of the milk received at Beloit was 
no better than at Newton : 

. The Jensen Creamery Company (Established 1894), 

Beloit, Kans, , June 17, 1897. 
Mr. J. H. Monrad, Newton, Kans. 

Dear Sir: Your letter of June 16 received, and note all you say. I wired you 
this morning: "Come here sure; will do everything to make the experiment a 
success; have a pasteurizer." Of course, we will have some difficulties, but we 
will arrange it all right. We don't take milk on Sundays generally, but should 
think we could for this purpose and have the whole creamery to our disposal 
during the experiment. We will have plenty of milk, as we receive 40,000 pounds 
per day here, and I could notify our best customers to fetch that day. I have Mann's 
acid test. I tested the cream from the separator this morning and it took 12 cc. 
to give it the red color. This sample cream was taken at about 10 a. m. Yester- 
day and last night we had thunder and cyclone weather, it being over 100° and a 
warm wind blowing. Under ordinary conditions we can get the cream all right. 
We are pasteurizing 50 gallons every day for a starter, and sterilizing all our 
skim milk. Ought to be able to pasteurize the cream. We have not got a small 
cream vat, but can get one. We have got a regular cream cooler. Will help you 
myself and supply whatever you need. Have got pipe- fitting tools and fittings. 
Hope that you will decide to come here, as I am very much interested. 
Yours, very truly, 

The Jensen Creamery Company, 
By W. F. Jensen. 

While we might have selected the best milk, it would not fill the demand for a 
practical test if we did so. Hence the only choice was to give up the experiment 
or try it under the existing conditions. Although it was evident that the best 
results could not be obtained under these circumstances, the condition of the cream 
(testing as high as 13 cc.) after being pasteurized, encouraged me in the belief 
that some practical value might be extracted for the benefit of the creamery men, 
even if the butter made under my direction did not score high enough to be credit- 
able. I was also encouraged by having read the claims made by some experi- 
menters in this country that improvement resulted from pasteurizing cream 
gathered twice a week, and completely sour. 

As will be seen, the work done here under my direction is nothing more than 
can be easily done at any creamery having plenty of ice or a refrigerating 
machine ; indeed, it was more difficult here than it would be if the creamery was 
pasteurizing regularly from day to day. 

SETTING UP THE APPARATUS. 

It was hoped to arrange the pasteurizers so as to catch the cream from the 
separators and run it directly over the coolers, but this could only be done by 
using a dark corner in the churn cellar, where the air was not good enough to 
expose the cream on the coolers, and where the heat from the heaters would be 
objectionable. I also suspected, what was proved later on, that both machines 
were of too great capacity for the heat to be kept down between 155° and 165°. 
Consequently the storage room was selected, just opposite the separators, and we 
removed the partition. 

The Barbel' apparatus was placed as shown in fig. 4, the only difference being 
that there were four Bair coolers instead of three. 

The heater, a cross section of which is shown in fig. 5, consists of a cast-iron 
base I, in which a turbine flyer (//) is inserted and driven by steam from the 
pipe/s. It also has a pipe Tfor the exhaust, but this is, as a rule, closed by the 
damper K, when not less than 1,000 pounds of milk per hour is treated. 



FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT. 



115 



O is a galvanized cylinder riveted to the base and provided with an annular tin 
gutter H. D is a slightly conical tinned copper drum soldered to a tinned brass 




FF.r.Jel 



Fig. 4.— Barber pasteurizing and cooling apparatus. 

bottom with a spindle which fits in the cup C, revolved by the turbine flyer//", run- 
ning on ball bearings. Drum D is strengthened by a hoop at the top, into which 





W7m77777777777777I7777/m77T/77777//77777/77777W^ 

Fig. 5.— Cross section of heater for Barber apparatus. 

is riveted a cross (r) of four rods, which again brace the 
1-inch pipe P that acts as spindle for the drum. The cylin- 
der G has a flat cover with a crossbar B, which is held in Crow Section NM 
position by two thumbscrews m. In the center of this bar is FlG " 6,— Bair cooler - 
the upper bearing. The cream enters at P (the hollow shaft) and is distributed 
from four holes at the bottom, but the chamber 31 (which was designed for hold- 
5422 3 



116 



BUREAU OP ANIMAL INDUSTRY. 



ing back any possible dirt when beating new milk) is not used in the cream 
heater. The cream flows in a thin film all the way, as shown by the arrows, and 
is thrown into the gutter H, leaving through the spout arranged with a thermom- 
eter at I. The exhaust steam from the flyer ff passes up through six holes xx 
into the cylinder and is the usual medium for heating the drum D. The pipe S 
supplies direct steam for this purpose, in addition, if needed. 

I had no regulating cup, and simply placed a tin can holding about 16 gallons 
on a shelf above the heater and ran the milk from that through a faucet with a 




Fig. 7.— The De Laval pasteurizing and cooling apparatus. 



pointed nozzle which fitted into the hollow spindle. Into this can we had to dump 
the cream, and the uneven pressure thus created made constant watching a neces- 
sity, in order to keep an even temperature. The apparatus should not be used 
without a regulating cup of some kind like those used for separators. 

The Bair cooler (fig. 6) is in this case 8 feet long and 18 inches wide, like a wide, 
shallow gutter with a corrugated bottom, shown in the cross section NM, and a 
double bottom where the cooling water circulates in an alternating current, 
caused by the partitions PP. The water flows as shown by the arrows on the 
sketch, entering at IF and escaping at A. The milk or cream flows over the top 
and, of course, in the opposite direction. 



FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT. 



117 



These coolers were given a drop of only about 2 inches, having a total drop from 
heater spout to the cooler spout of 18 inches. The two upper coolers were made 
of tin and connected with the overflow from the condensing tank of the refriger- 
ator, the water showing from 80° to 85 , and the two lower (made of copper) were 
connected with the Bair cooler in the cream room and the rotary pump, so that 
brine could be turned on at will. The brine was, as a rule, at a temperature 
between 30 and 32°. 

Tlie De Laval apparatus. — This neat and well-made apparatus, imported from 
Sweden, was placed next to the Barber in a similar manner, as shown in fig. 7. 
Soon after it became necessary to remove it to a skimming station. 

The heater, a cross section of which is shown in fig. 8, is explained by the fol- 
lowing key: 




PlQ. 8.— Cross section of heater for De Laval pasteurizing apparatus, with connecting pipes. 

Q — Bottom plate. 

R— Feed pipe for milk. 

U— Footstep bearing. 

V— Milk-outlet faucet. 

X— Steel ball for bearing. 

Y— Outlet tube. 

Z — Center for stirrer. 



A— Cover. 

B— Nut for balls. 

C— Steel balls. 

D— Discharge pipe for milk. 

E— Pipe union. 

F— Milk can. 

Q— Mantle. 

H— Stirrer. 



I — Three-eighths-inch valve. 

J — Tubular shaft. 

K— Shaft. 

L— Manometer (pressure gauge). 

M — Three-fourths-iuch valve. 

N — Turbine housing. 

O— Pipe union. 

P— Turbine. 



In operating this apparatus the cream and the steam are turned on at the same 
time, and when a pressure of 45 pounds is maintained the right speed of the 
dasher (stirrer) His obtained. When finished, the remaining cream (about ~> or 
6 gallons) is drawn out by the faucet (outlet tube) Y. No oiling is required, as 
the bearing runs in water from the condensed steam, which is held back by a 
water lock. Direct steam may be applied by the valve /. 

The disk cooler, which is shown in fig. 7 as accompanying the De Laval pasteur- 



118 



BUREAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTRY. 



izer, has a distributing cup considerably smaller than the one shown in fig. 7, and 
it is at the same time to some extent a regulating cup, as it inay be adjusted to dis- 
tributing various quantities of cream. The cooler is really more like the one 
shown in fig. 9, and consists of a series of disks over which the cream flows in 

thin sheets, the cooling water (in this 
case brine) flowing inside the hol- 
low disks from the bottom to the top. 
When the under vessel is placed 
fairly level, the cooling cylinder may 
be leveled perfectly by the three set 
screws in its supports. 

This cooler was also connected 
with the brine tank and pump, and, 
small as it is (only 14i inches in di- 
ameter and 14 inches high, with 
eight disks and a total drop of 24 
inches), its cooling capacity aston- 
ished all who saw its work. 

PRELIMINARY CHURNINGS. 

As it seemed unlikely, at the first 
attempt, to do justice to either the 
system or the apparatus used, under 
these conditions, novel and far from 
perfect, I arranged for a few prelim- 
inary churnings, and Messrs. A. H. 
Barber & Co. kindly consented to 
take the butter from these churnings 
and keep it for tests as to keeping 
quality, I agreeing to stand half of 
whatever loss might result. 

First churning. — June 17 the first 




Fig. 9. 



-Elevation of disk cooler, with section 
through the two upper disks. 

four 10-gallon cans of cream separated at the factory were pasteurized on the Barber 
outfit, the temperature being kept between 153° and 165° and cooled to 62°. The 
acidity of the first can was 9 cc. and of the fourth 14 cc. At 11 a. m. the pasteur- 
ized cream was dumped in a small cream vat (with cover) placed in the cream 
room and 10 per cent of a starter made (according to directions) from Hansen's 
lactic ferment. The acidity of this starter was 54 cc, and the flavor did not suit 
me perfectly (having been developed at too high a temperature) , but I had to use it. 

At 6 p. m. the pasteurized cream tested 17 cc. acid at 62°, and next morning 20 
cc. Having cooled it to 55 with crushed ice in the cream, it was churned in 48 
minutes, the buttermilk being 59°, with an acidity of 30 cc. It was washed once 
with the deep-well water, cooled at 5.4°, and salted and worked in the manner 
usual at the creamery. The only precaution taken was to rinse the churn and 
butter worker with iced limewater, of which I had two barrels prepared. 

It may be in order here to put in a strong plea for a more common use of 
limewater. Get a barrel or hogshead and fill with clean water; stir into this 
unslaked lime enough to make an inch or two of sediment form after settling; 
stir up two or three times, then let it settle, and use when clear as crystal. Rinse 
everything used with this, after the usual cleaning and before using; and never 
mind what adheres to the churn after draining, as it will not hurt the butter. 1 

1 The cleansing properties of lime and limewater can not be doubted. But this 
advice to add more or less limewater to cream in the churn ought to be further 
explained and qualified. — H. E. A. 



FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT. 119 

This butter was salted with one ounce of salt per pound and packed in 60-pound 
tubs. It was scored by Messrs. Barber and Mittelstadt on the 28th of June 
on this scale: Flavor 50, grain 30, color 10, salt 10 = 100 points. Marked: Flavor 
44, grain 29, color 10, salt 10 = 93 points. 

Second churning. — June 18, the best milk I found for pasteurizing for starter 
tested 12 cc. This time I took every other can of cream from the separator, and 
my fourth can had 14 cc. acid; the pasteurized cream, before adding the starter, 
was 12 cc. and 63° in temperature. The starter used had an acidity of 49 cc. 
and showed a little better flavor than on the day previous. 

At 5.30 p.m. the temperature of the cream was 62" with 17 cc. acidity, and the 
next morning (5 o'clock) the same temperature with an acidity of 26 cc. Cooled 
with ice in the cream to 48 , but the churn heated it up to 53 by the time gas 
was let out. and it churned in twenty-five minutes, buttermilk being 56° with 
acidity of only 29 cc. It was worked and salted the usual way. and scored, 
June 28, flavor 45, grain 29, color 9i, salt 10 = 93| points. 

I believe that the higher acidity produced a gain of one point in flavor. 

A tub made from the unpasteurized cream of same day's separating (every other 
can) scored 44, 284, 9, 10 = 9H points. 

July 1, Mr. Sleighton, of Manchester, and Mr. Barton, of Chicago, looked at 
these two tubs, and while Mr. Sleighton thought there was not much difference, 
Mr. Barton declared the pasteurized to be considerably better than the other. 

July 2, Mr. W. D. Collyer, of Chicago, scored them 97 and 97A, giving one- 
half point in favor of the unpasteurized on flavor. 

Third churning.— On the 19th there was a little improvement in the milk, some 
of the patrons having evidently taken notice of my circular letter. The milk 
used for starter tested only 10 cc. The cream from 9 to 13 cc. and this was heated 
to 160° in the De Laval heater and cooled to 68% this being the lowest the cooler 
could bring it at the flow (1,200 pounds per hour) needed to keep the temperature 
down to 160°. 

As no work is done at this factory on Sundays, I ran the cream over the cooler 
twice, getting it down to 51°. The pasteurized cream showed 11.5 cc. acidity at 
2 p.m., and Sunday at 10 a.m. 12 cc, temperature 56°. At 5.30 p.m. the cream 
room was 59% the pasteurized cream 56% with 18.5 cc. acid, while the regular 
corresponding cream was 51 % with 26.5 acid. 

Monday morning the acidity was 26 cc. ; the cream was cooled but not churned 
till 2 p.m. (when the acidity was 27 cc) at a temperature of 55% It took one 
hour and seven minutes to churn, and the buttermilk was 58% with 33 cc. acidity. 

A tub was selected by the butter maker, Mr. Brandt, from his regular product 
of the day, to compete with this churning, and the comparative scoring of these 
two, June 28, was as follows: 

Pasteurized— flavor 454, grain 29, color 94, salt 10 = 94 points; regular — flavor 
424, grain 28, color 9*, salt 10 = 90 points. On July 2 Mr. Collyer scored them 
with this result: Pasteurized — flavor 41, grain 30, color 9, salt 10 = 90 points: regu- 
lar — flavor 40, grain 30, color 9, salt 10 = 89 points. 

Fourth churning. — The milk delivered Monday, June 21, was- somewhat 
improved, the last can of cream being 11.5 cc, the milk used for starter 11 cc, 
and the worst milk accepted 23 cc, whereas on a previous day 30 cc. had been 
taken in. The cream was taken alternately from the two separators, one to the 
regular vat and one set aside for pasteurizing. When four cans of each were 
secured the half for pasteurizing was heated to 160 and then cooled to 65". 

The starter was added, and at 6.30 p.m. the cream was 64% with 13 cc. acidity. 
Next morning at 6.30 it had the same temperature and 23 cc. acidity. It was 
drawn into 8-gallon cans, set in ice water at 11.30 a. in., with an acidity of 26 cc. 
and cooled to 54% but owing to one of the combined churns breaking down it 
was not churned till 5 p.m., being then at a temperature of 54 and acidity 27.5 



120 BUREAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTRY. 

cc. ; time of churning, forty-five minutes; buttermilk being 61" , with 31 cc. acidity. 
The temperature in churn room was 79°. This churning was salted with only 
three-fourths of an ounce of Genesee salt and packed in export boxes. 

A control tub of 20 pounds was scored by Messrs. Barber and Mittelstadt on 
July 1 : Flavor 46i, grain 29, color 9f , and salt 10 = 95J points. Mr. Collyer scored 
it on the 2d, flavor 44, grain 30, color 94, salt 10 = 93| points. 

The unpasteurized cream had been treated the usual way, dumped in the cream 
vat as it came from the separator at 85°, and allowed to cool gradually to 62°, 
when plenty of ice was put in. On the morning of the 22d it had a temperature 
of 54° and acidity of 26 cc; was churned at 53° in one hour and ten minutes, the 
finishing temperature being 57 : . This was also salted with three- fourths of an 
ounce of Genesee salt. The scoring box of this ' ' regular " churning was examined 
by Messrs. Barber and Mittlestadt and marked — flavor 42, grain 28£, color 9i, and 
salt 10 = 90i points; and by W. D. Collyer— flavor 33, grain 30, color 9, and salt 

10 = 87 points. 

EXPORT C'HURNINGS. 

First churning, June 23. — Milk delivered xra. June 22 was decidedly better; the 
milk haulers nearly all had blankets over the cans, and milk used for starter showed 

11 cc. acidity: the first can of cream 8.5 cc. and the last only 10.5 cc. Pasteurizing 
was done at 11.30 a. m. , but the cream was not started till 2 p. m. , as there was only 
one cream vat. At 6 p. m. it had 17 cc. acidity at 64°, and next morning at 6 o'clock 
22 cc. at 63°, and at 11.30 a. m. 25 cc. at 02 . It was cooled in cans, as before 
described, and churned at 5 p.m. in fifty minutes at a temperature of 51°. The 
buttermilk was 59°, with an acidity of 31 cc. 

The butter from this churning was packed in export boxes and was scored in 
New York by Mr. "W. H. Healy, scale and results as follows: Scale: Flavor 40, 
grain 30, color 15, salt 10, packages = 100. Marked: Flavor 33, grain 30, color 14, 
salt 10, package 5 = 92. 

Notes.— Lacks flavor, but clean to taste; body good; color mottled. # 

The unpasteurized cream, handled the usual way. churned at 51°, buttermilk 
61°, with 29 cc. acidity, made butter which was scored in New York by Mr. Healy, 
with the following comparative record: Marked: Flavor 31, grain 29, color 13, 
salt 10, package 4i = 87|. 

Notes.— Flavor not clean, bitter. Body short; grain little salvy; color badly mottled; salt 
good; packing "slack." 

Second churning, June 24. — Having found it impossible to get enough butter for 
three export boxes of each kind, apart from desired control boxes, I consulted 
with Messrs. Hoffman and Lewelling; and as they, as well as Mr. Brandt, declared 
that cream sent in early by express from a skimming station would be fully as 
good as the home cream, it was decided to have this done in order to eke out the 
unpasteurized cream and to pasteurize enough. 

Milk received on the 23d was even better than that of the previous day, the first 
can showing only 7.5 cc. acidity and the third one 8 cc. The pasteurized cream was 
started in the usual manner, with about 8 per cent starter of an acidity of 49.5 cc, 
and next morning, at 5 o'clock, it was 63°, with 27 cc. acidity, increasing to 28 cc. 
at 9 a.m. Then it was set to cool, and churned at 3 p.m. at 49° in one hour and 
fifteen minutes, the buttermilk being 56°, with 34 cc. acidity. This butter was 
packed in boxes and scored in Chicago by three inspectors, and averaged — flavor 
42| , grain 29, color 9f, and salt 10 = 91^ points. 

The corresponding unpasteurized cream was churned at 52° in thirty-three 
minutes, buttermilk being 60°, with 20 cc. acidity. The boxes of butter made 
from this were scored — flavor, 40^, grain 28|. color 9|, and salt 10 = 88 f points. 

Third churning, June 25. — Acidity of the cream pasteurized was: First can, 8.8 
cc; the fourth, 10 cc, and the last, 12 cc. The cream next morning (25th), 
o'clock, was 03°, with 29 cc. acidity, increasing to 30 cc, when it was cooled and 



FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT. 121 

churned at 47° in fifty-seven minutes; buttermilk, 54°, with 38.5 cc. acidity. This 
butter scored— flavor 44 }. , grain 29£, color 9j% and salt 10 = 93^. The unpasteurized 
butter, which was churned at 52° in fifty minutes, with buttermilk 57° , and acidity 
24.1 cc. , scored— flavor 40|, grain 28f , color 9:% and salt 10 = 88| points. 

Fourth churning, June ^.—Friday, the 25th, I pasteurized the whole run of 
cream, dumping it into one of the regular vats and starting it with fully 10 per 
cent of starter. Mr. Brandt took charge of it, and it was cooled the next day by 
direct ice, acidity 28 cc, and churned at 49° in one hour, the buttermilk being 56° 
and 30 cc. acid. Of this a box was scored by three persons in Chicago, the aver- 
age results being — flavor 44, grain 29£, color 10, salt 10 = 93£ points. For com- 
parison, Mr. Brandt selected a tub from the regular make of the day, and this was 
similarly scored, its record being— flavor 42£, grain 28f, color 9|, and salt 10 = 
91 points. 

SHIPPING HOT CREAM. 

Fifth churning, June 28. — Having tried the De Laval heater once at the creamery, 
I then had it taken to the Halstead skimming station and prepared for heating 
cream there. On the 26th we drove over at 4 a. m. and set it in place. Knowing 
it would take care of more cream, I had requested Mr. Lewellen, in charge of the 
separators, to change them so as to give me more and thinner cream, and the heater 
was placed so as to catch the cream as it came from the two Alpha separators, 
there being just drop enough to place a cream-carrying can under the heater. We 
decided to divide the cream so that the first carrier was left unheated; the next 
three were heated and the last two not heated. This was fair enough, so far as 
the acidity was concerned, as the first can was 10 cc. and the last one only 11 cc. 

It turned out that the temperature could not be kept below 170% but I did not 
object to this, because it became a severer test as regards the ''cooked'' flavor, 
which I feared would result from not immediately cooling the cream after 
pasteurizing. 

By 10.30 o'clock we had finished skimming and the cream hauler was ready to 
start. The three heated cans then showed 150% 155% and 158" temperature, the 
cans having cooled the cream that much. The unheated cream was 82% also in 
three cans. 

The cream arrived at Newton at 1.05 p. m. in good condition, the three heated 
cans at 138% 140% and 142 c ; this cream was immediately run over the Bair coolers 
and reduced to 64°. 

The unheated cream was 85% 84% and 88% the last being the carrier next to 
those containing the hot cream. This cream was somewhat churned and was 
treated the usual way, being run over the factory Bair cooler, reduced to 66 , 
and tested 21.5 cc. acidity at 3 p.m.; at this time the pasteurized cream tested only 
8.5 cc. Starter was then added (8 per cent) to the latter, and next morning 
(Sunday) , 7 o'clock, it had a temperature of 63° and 26 cc. acidity. At 11 a. m. it was 
62 with 29 cc. acidity, and it was chilled to 52' in 8-gallon cans placed in ice 
water; but I also put in a couple of pounds of ice in each can. At 4 p.m. it was 46% 
and Monday morning the acidity had only advanced to 31 cc. The churning was 
started at 50 and finished in one hour, with buttermilk at 59 and acidity 34.5 cc. 

It must be observed that this cream hauled hot had, when cooled, considerably 
more " cooked" taste than the cream heated in Newton and cooled at once, but it 
is uncertain whether this was due to the higher heat or to keeping it hot for about 
three hours. As the ripening process went on the cooked flavor seemed to dimin- 
ish, but both Mr. Lewellen and myself imagined we could detect it, even in the 
butter. Yet three days later, when asked about any peculiar flavor, none of the 
judges could find this cooked taste. This butter scored— flavor 43^, grain 29i, 
color 9$, salt 10 = 91f points. The unpasteurized cream was churned at 53° in 
thirty-five minutes, buttermilk being 59% with acidity of 28.5 cc. The butter 
scored— flavor 434, grain 29,V, color 9£, salt 9f=91f points. 



122 



BUREAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTRY. 



THE PACKAGES. 

It was the plan to have the boxes prepared in sets of three — one with paraffin, 
one with Dowdell's enamel, and one unprepared. I had ordered spruce boxes, 
these being in my estimation the best looking, but through a misunderstanding I 
received poplar boxes, uncrated and unburlapped, dirty, and short count, and had 
to do as well as possible with these. In applying the paraffin it was found essential 
to have the boxes perfectly dry and warm; with these conditions it gave a satis- 
factory coating. The Dowdell enamel was contributed for trial by its inventor, 
Mrs. F. D. Shaw, through the agency of F. A. Tripp. It seems to give a very nice 
coating, but is too complicated in its application to be practical in a creamery. 
It is not unlikely, however, that this difficulty can be overcome later. 

The first six boxes being thrown out, some spruce boxes from the home supply 
of the factory were substituted, and thus I to VI, IX, and XII were untreated 
spruce; VII, X, XIII, XVI, XIX, and XXII were untreated poplar: VIII, XI, 
XIV, XVII, XX, and XXIII were paraffined poplar; and XV, XVIII, XXI, and 
XXIV were treated with Dowdell enamel. 



GENERAL REMARKS. 

These experiments, made under many difficulties, are not claimed to have been 
exhaustive enough to have scientific value, but they at least indicate what may be 
done in this line, and may encourage creamery men to follow up the matter. The 
results of pasteurization in these trials is best shown by comparing the scoring 
records of the different lots of butter, pasteurized and not pasteurized, as given 
in the table following : 

Table of comparative scorings of butter, pasteurized and unpasteurized, made as 

per report. 





First scoring, June 28 and July 1. 


Second scoring, 


July 23 




Dates of 




Scale and points. 






Scale and points. 




churning. 


P. a 


















Flavor, 


Grain, 


Color, 


Salt, 


Total 


Flavor, 


Grain, 


Color, 


Salt, 


Total 






50. 


30. 


10. 


10. 


100. 


50. 


30. 


10. 


10. 


100. 


1897. 
























June 18. 


P. 


44 


29 


10 


10 


93 


39* 


29* 


98 


10 


88* 


19. 




41 


29 


9 


10 


89 - 


36 


29* 


9* 


10 


84* 


19 


P. 


42| 


29* 


9* 


10 


90| 


38$ 


29* 


9* 


10 


87* 


20 




m 


28* 


9! 


10 


89J 


35* 


29! 


9* 


10 


83| 


20 


P. 


44 


29* 


9* 


10 


92| 


40 


29* 


9* 


10 


89 


no 




40| 


29J 


9* 


10 


894 


37f 


29* 


9* 


10 


86* 


•)■) 


P. 


454 


29* 


9f 


10 


94* 


41 


29* 


9f 


10 


90 


24 




m 


28| 


9* 


10 


88f 


&5* 


29 


91 


10 


831 


24 


P. 


42* 


29 


9* 


10 


91* 


38| 


29* 


9* 


10 


87* 


25 




40J 


28| 


94 


10 


881 


36 


28| 


9* 


10 


84! 




P. 


44J 


29* 


9* 


10 


93 


38* 


29! 


9* 


10 


86| 


26 




42 V 


28| 


91 


10 


91 


37* 


29 


9* 


10 


85* 


26 


P. 


44 


29| 


10 


10 


93! 


38 


29* 


9! 


10 


86* 


28 




434 


29| 


9* 


91 


9U 


38! 


29* 


9! 


10 


86f 


28 


P. 


43 


29* 


9! 


10 


91* 


37| 


29* 


9* 


10 


86* 




92* 










87J 


Average for not pasteurized 




90 




85 


a 






2* 


2| 

















a P equals "pasteurized. "' 
Note.— All the figures are averages from marks of the three judges, acting separately. 



FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT. 



123 



The sample or control packages were taken from the several churnings. These 
were kept in the cold room of the Hesston creamery until all were ready and then 
sent together to Chicago. There the butter was kept by Mr. A. H. Barber in his 
sales room, which, although refrigerated, had a variable temperature of 43° to 45°. 
The .iudges had no knowledge whatever of the history or differences in the con- 
tents of the different packages while the scoring was being done. 

As an additional contribution to the same subject, I procured sample packages 
of butter from Messrs. Jensen Bros., of Beloit, Kans., who were pasteurizing a 
part of the product of their creamery at the same time I was at Newton. The two 
packages were from the same lot of cream, the butter of one being pasteurized 
while the other was made up "raw." The packages were sent together to Chi- 
cago, scored on the 23d of July by the same judges, and their averages follow: 



Score. 


Flavor. 


Grain. 


Color. 


Salt. 


Total. 




50 

45| 
* 


30 
29A 


10 
10 
8* 


10 
10 
10 


100 




94H 
93/j 




44f 









The difference in favor of pasteurization, H points. 

A portion of the samples described were kept undisturbed at Chicago until 
August 13, when they were examined and scored by Mr. D. C. Wolverton, an 
excellent judge, with the following result. This gentleman was also in entire 
ignorance as to the butter in the various packages until his judgment had been 
recorded : 



Place and date 


of making... 




Hesston creamery, Newton, Kans. 




Jensen 

creamery, 

Beloit, Kans., 

July, 1897. 




June 


22. 


June 24. 


June 25. 


June 26. 




Scale. 


P.o 


R.6 


P. 


R. 


P. 


R. 


P. 


R. 


P. 


R. 




50 
30 
10 
10 


44 
29 
10 
10 


40 
29 
10 
10 


38* 

29± 

10 

10 


38 
29 
10 
10 


38 
29 
9* 
10 


39 

28 

10 


42 

29 
10 
10 


40 

29 

9J 

10 


45 

29 
10 
10 


44 




29 


Color 


10 


Salt 


10 








Total 


100 


93 


89 


88 


87 


86* 


86* 


91 


m 


94 


93 







«P=Pasteurized. 6R=Raw cream. 

Averages: Flavor, P=4H; R=40i> Total: P=9(H; R=88£. 

The butter made at the Hesston creamery, as described, was duly exported to 
London and there subjected to criticism. An attempt was made to have it scored 
there upon the same scale of points as used in Chicago, and score cards were sent 
over for the purpose. This duty was assigned to the most competent person who 
could be found in London, but when the report was received (the middle of 
August) it was found to be useless for purposes of comparison. The examiner 
was evidently unaccustomed to the score card or to recording his judgment of 
butter by numerals, and the variations and inconsistencies in the report render it 
worthless. In general, this examiner reported that he failed to find any apprecia- 
ble difference between butter made from cream which had been pasteurized and 
that from raw cream. As a matter of personal preference, he was rather inclined 
to favor the butter from raw cream at the time of his comparative examination 
in London. 

Theoretically, the pasteurizing should have operated to preserve the flavor and 



124 BUREAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTRY. 

increase keeping quality, and should have appeared in the later scorings. The 
tables above show that although all the American judges somewhat favored the 
butter which had been pasteurized, this butter did not appear to increase its 
advantage with age. 

In the matter of flavor alone I find that the average of the pasteurized samples 
in June was 43| against 4l£ for the other, or a superiority of 2 points. In July 
the comparative averages on flavor were 39 and 36£, difference 2J-, or practically 
the same as in June. Mr. Wolverton gave the pasteurized lots an average in 
August of 1J points in flavor over the others. 

CONCLUSIONS. 

As "the result of this Kansas work, and some experience in confirmation of it, 
my conclusions are as follows: 

( 1 ) That even for the home market, pasteurization will make some improvement 
in the butter of at least 75 creameries in every 100. 

(2) That fully as good "body " can be obtained in butter made from pasteurized 
cream as from raw cream. 

(3) That heating cream even to 170° and hauling it 12 miles while hot is per- 
fectly practicable, although the butter thus made did not show any higher scoring 
at the first trial as a result of this treatment. 

(4) That with the proper arrangements the pasteurization of cream need not 
be much extra work aside from the cleaning of apparatus; but an extra man is' 
needed if the preparing of starter and the care of the cream, as well as the extra 
cleaning, is to be given the proper attention. 

(5) That a large supply of ice or a refrigerating machine is necessary in order 
to chill the cream sufficiently to get a good "body." 

(6) That in ripening cream a lower acid seems better adapted to a very rich 
cream, and there are indications that a better flavor can be obtained from thin 
cream. 

(Professor McKay, of Ames. Iowa, was the first to draw attention to the vague- 
ness of the acid test unless the richness of the cream is known. This is an impor- 
tant subject and needs more investigation. The cream at Newton I calculated to 
have about 37 per cent of fat and the Halstead cream 29 per cent, but as the test- 
ing there is done by perambulating tester, the means were not available for veri- 
fying these estimates. The correlation of acidity in cream and in the buttermilk 
is also worth investigating.) 

I can not conclude this report without expressing my appreciation of the kind 
treatment given me by Messrs. Hoffman and Lewellen, and the good-natured way 
in which all the employees humored my demands for cleaning, including the use 
of limewater, and performed all the extra labor caused by my work. 

I must also thank Messrs. A. H. Barber and John Mittelstadt, of Chicago (who 
acted as judges at the Exposition of 1893), and Mr. W.D. Collyer (of C.F.Love 
& Co. ) for the cheerfulness with which they scored the butter under conditions 
prescribed by me. There was greater difference in the scoring than usual, 
because each judge worked by himself, in my presence, and had no chance to 
consult the others or afterwards modify his decision. A different "key" was 
therefore very likely to be used. Consequently it has been thought best to give 
the average marks of these three judges instead of the figures reported by each. 
Creamery men can not too highly appreciate this volunteer work, taking up valu- 
able time, a service which I did not find all butter experts willing to render. 

THE FUTURE. 

As a rather curious coincidence I will mention that upon my return home I 
received a letter from Mr. J. D. Frederiksen, dated Denmark, June 24, in which 
he wrote: "It has been interesting to observe the progress made, especially in 



FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT. 125 

the cooperative creameries and bacon factories, as well as in the sugar factories. 
It is the small farmers rather than the large 'estates' who have made this 
progress. Ninety-nine per cent of the creameries have pasteurizing outfits and 
90 per cent pasteurize the cream, whether it is good or bad. There is no question 
but what the American creameries must follow suit. The Americans will adopt 
the English demand for mild-flavored butter, and ten years hence all cream in 
America, or at least the cream in all good creameries, will be pasteurized." 

The introduction of this system will promote a higher standard of cleanliness 
in our creameries and compel the owners to give the needed extra help. If the 
Department desires to assist its introduction, it would be well to offer the aid of 
experts to creameries willing to pay their expenses while giving factory employees 
the necessary instruction in this new line of work. 

I estimated the cost of an extra man, interest on apparatus, cost of cooling, and 
loss in yield of butter by the reduction in water content to meet export require- 
ments to be about 1 cent per pound. It remains to be determined whether the 
above-mentioned advantages are worth this cost. 

But it seems to me that uniformity, with a mild, clean flavor, is the only basis 
for building up an export trade, as well as for general improvement in the quality 
of the home market. 

APPENDIX VII. 

THE EXPORT OF FRESH (UNSALTED) BUTTER FROM THE UNITED 

STATES. 

In the foregoing report the fact has been noted that butter without salt sells at 
a higher price in London than any other, and some description has been given 
of this butter as usually supplied from France for the London market. (See pp. 
85 and 86.) 

The custom of using unsalted butter has been slowly increasing in the United 
States for several years, and a considerable quantity of it, called "fresh" and 
'• sweet" butter, now finds a market weekly in New York, as well as in other 
cities to a less extent. 

It was therefore decided to try, in connection wHh the other experimental 
exports of the Department, the shipment of fresh butter from New York to Lon- 
don. So far as known, this form of butter had never before been exported from 
this country, at least upon a commercial basis. 

Several hundred pounds of unsalted butter were engaged, to be made in August 
by two factories which have won a high reputation for this special product. 
They were the Sennett Creamery, of Sennett. Cayuga County, N. Y.. and the 
Edmunds Creamery, of Sherman, Chautauqua County, N. Y. The officers of both 
these establishments did everything in their power to conform to the suggestions 
and instructions from this Department and to make this trial a success. 

The butter was packed, at both factories, in bulk and in rolls. The former was 
put in cubical boxes, holding between 56 and 57 pounds net, to be sold as a half 
hundredweight. The boxes were coated inside with paraffin, besides being lined 
well with parchment paper. The rolls were made up (or intended to be) of 2 
pounds weight each, in imitation of the Brittany fresh rolls, and a part of these 
were packed in a similar way, 1 dozen rolls in a box. The boxes were made 
exactly the size of those bought in the London market and imported (with the 
French butter they contained) as patterns. These were also paraffin coated 
inside and lined with parchment. Besides these extra precautions, each roll was 
wrapped in parchment paper, which is not the custom with the French rolls sold 
in London. From each factory a part of the rolls were wrapped in parchment, 
packed and shipped in a " portable refrigerator " or metallic chest with ice box. 



126 BUREAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTRY. 

The thorough making and density of the butter of this character as made in 
Brittany were developed in an interesting way in connection with these trials. 
The imported Brittany rolls were weighed on a standard scale and found to 
average 2 pounds each, "down weight.'' The rolls were then measured and molds 
made which would produce rolls of exactly the same size. The 12-roll packing 
boxes were also accurately duplicated, as already stated. But when the butter 
was made and molded, the rolls at one factory averaged 1 pound 14 ounces in 
weight and at the other factory only 1 pound 13 ounces. The sizes were right, 
and twelve of these rolls just filled the packing boxes made for them. When rolls 
of 2 pounds full weight and of the same shape were made up by hand, it was 
found impossible to get a dozen of them into one of the boxes provided. (This 
error in the rolls was discovered too late to have new molds and boxes made; so 
the short- weight rolls were shipped, and this defect had a very unfavorable bear- 
ing upon their sale in London.) Thus the pound of fresh butter as prepared in 
this country by very careful and skillful makers had a bulk materially greater 
than the similar butter made in Brittany, France. A natural conclusion was that 
the American butter was insufficiently worked and too porous. London critics 
said that it contained too much water. But the results of several analyses, by 
different analysts, shows that the American butter averaged 12.16 per cent water 
and 88.02 per cent fat, while the French butter averaged 13.10 per cent water and 
85.93 fat. The other components averaged 0.82 of 1 per cent in the former and 
0.97 of 1 per cent in the latter; this difference is accounted for, however, by the 
borax found in the Brittany butter, of which there was none in that from the 
United States. Chemically the American butter was the better, but the French 
butter excelled in its mechanical condition; it was uncommonly firm, fine grained, 
and dense, without being at all overworked. And while the French butter, as 
stated, carried a higher percentage of water, the latter was so thoroughly incor- 
porated that this butter appeared to be very dry. These points are interesting 
and deserve attention from some of our experimenters in butter making. 

Care was taken to have the butter made as late as possible to catch the export 
steamer, and transported with every precaution to avoid delay and exposure. 
The two lots of butter were made August 21 and 22, held in chilled rooms 
till evening of 23d, then sent by night express, reaching New York City at 6.30 
a. m. of 24th. They were delivered at the vessel's side at 10.30 a. m., and an hour 
later were in its commercial refrigerator, at a temperature of 30° F. The atmos- 
pheric temperature at New York that day was 68° at 9 a. m. and 72° at noon. 
The steamer sailed from New York August 25, arrived at Southampton Septem- 
ber 1, and the butter was delivered to merchants in London on the 2d of Septem- 
ber, or the twelfth day after it was made. 

Upon arrival in London some of the small boxes of rolls, made of light lumber, 
had been crushed and their contents spoiled. It was found also that the entire 
lot of butter, with the exception of some of the rolls in the two iron trunks, was 
damaged with mold. This trouble and the light weight of the rolls, already 
explained, caused the roll boxes to sell at a low rate. The bulk butter was 
slightly moldy on the outer portions of the cubes as removed from the packages. 
Upon cutting these parts away the greater portion of the butter was found in 
excellent condition. But as fresh butter is not sold in bulk in London this had to 
be worked up into rolls before being retailed, and this was a disadvantage. These 
several causes prevented realizing a satisfactory average on the sale of this butter 
in London, and it is fairer to the trial to name the prices of portions of the shipment, 
representative of the whole when starting, but which reached the foreign market 
free from accident and in the best of condition. These parts sold at a little less 
than 22 cents per pound wholesale and retailed at 24 to 27| cents. The best fresh 
Brittany rolls were then selling at 28 to 30 cents per pound. The Normandy Pro- 



FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT. 



127 



dtice Company took a good deal of the short-weight roll butter, including some 
from the iron trunks, and retailed it all as "Normandy fresh butter" at a shill- 
ing a pound. The butter cost 20 cents per pound when placed on the export 
steamer at New York and about 21 cents when delivered to merchants in London. 
The two lots of butter constituting this shipment were examined and scored in 
New York by the inspector of the Mercantile Exchange, with the following result: 

Scoring of unsalted butter in Neiv York City. 



Scale for perfection 
Sennett Creamery.. 
Edmunds Creamery 



Flavor. 


Grain. 


Color. 


Salt, a 


Style. 


40 


30 


15 


111 


5 


33 


30 


15 


10 


5 


35 


30 


IS 


10 


5 



Total. 

100 
93 
95 



a To follow scale, all marked perfect on salt, although having none. 

In London all the packages, except those injured and rejected, were examined 
and scored on the same scale, with the average result following. Comparisons 
were made by the same examiner— a novice in scoring — with French fresh butter 
and Danish salt butter judged at the same time: 

Scoring of United States and French unsalted butter and Danish salted butter in 

London. 





Flavor. 


Grain. 


Color. 


Salt. 


Style. 


Total. 




33 
35 

37 
38 
37 


28 
28 

,38 
29 

28 


12 
12 
15 
14 
14 


10 
10 
10 
10 




3 

3 

ol 

5 

4 


86 




88 




91 




96 




92 







a Package unsuitable because too heavy. But for this deduction on "style," or package, this 
butter would have scored within one point of the French, which stood at the top of the market. 

From various opinions given by the dealers and other critics who examined this 
butter in London the following are culled: Graded as second to best Brittany 
fresh rolls. The butter arrived bright, sweet, and in excellent condition except 
for the moldy spots inside the wrappers already described; texture not suf- 
ficiently hard when thawed from hard state in which it arrived, showing too 
many water globules; rather too much color [the butter was not colored] 
to compare favorably with the standard French supply. Some of the boxes 
had cloth at the bottom and top inside the parchment lining: the ends of the 
rolls touched this cloth and all received a distinct odor and taste from it. 
." Cotton cloth should never touch butter in packing for market." [Yet the boxes 
from France as found in London market ordinarily have two pieces of cotton cloth 
inside the paper lining, one at the bottom and the other at the top, in direct con- 
tact with both ends of all the rolls.] The butter which was not moldy sold 
readily at a price next to the best of its general class in the market. The short- 
weight rolls were objected to and had to be sold at a rather lower rate. 

Special mention should be made of the patented carriers in which some of this 
butter was sent. They were made of galvanized iron and had within them boxes 
for holding ice free from contact with the butter. Each carrier or trunk was 
intended for four dozen 2-pound rolls, but the short weight of the rolls reduced 
the total contents from 96 to 90 pounds. Fifty pounds of ice was placed in each 



128 



BUREAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTRY. 



carrier on leaving the creamery (August 23) and examined at New York the next 
day when put in steamer's refrigerator, when each was found to contain 15 to 20 
pounds of ice. On reaching London there was still (September 2) a little ice in 
one trunk. In the other the ice had all melted and the water had reached the 
butter and injured its appearance. The butter in these trunks when opened in 
London was found to be hard, firm, and excellent in quality except for a few 
spots of mold. As the trunks were practically airtight, it is evident that the 
germs of this mold started with the butter from the creameries where made or at 
least from New York. The mold developed most in the 2-pound rolls in small 
boxes and least in the "portable refrigerators." While the latter carried the 
butter well, the weight of package and ice exceeded that of the butter contained, 
and it seems to be impracticable on that account alone, although efficient in its 
service. 

Careful investigation satisfies the writer that the mold was preventable and 
not necessarily incident to the export of butter of this class. Salt butters sent 
before and after were exported free from mold, but some sent at the same time 
with these fresh lots was slightly affected. Fresh butter can undoubtedly be sent 
to London without being injured in this way. But for the mold and the short- 
weight rolls, the returns from the shipment would have been much better. 

Although this trial can not be regarded as conclusive, its results justify repeti- 
tion, and indicate that, with proper measures to secure the desired texture or 
"body" for the butter and further experience in packing and shipping, it will be 
possible for fresh roll butter made in the United States to be placed in the 
London market of such quality and in such condition as to equal the present 
favored product of the north of France. Whether the latter can be competed 
with commercially at a satisfactory profit will remain to be determined. 

H. E. A. 

APPENDIX VIII. 

RECORD OF SCORING OF BUTTER EXPORTED. 



Sample. 



Scored. 



No. 


u 


1 


P. 


2 


P. 


3 


A. 


4 


A. 


. 5 


A. 


6 


A. 


7 


A. 


8 


A. 


9 


A. 


10 


A. 


11 


H. 


12 


H. 


13 


H. 


14 


H. 


15 


H. 


16 


H. 


17 


H. 


13 


J. 


19 


J. 



Where made. 



Where. 



When. 



Points and scale. 



o 
-* 

u 



> 
■2 


© 
>, 

o 
M 


© 

o 
"o 
O 


© 
02 


© 

» 
be 
5 
M 
o 
09 


37 


30 


10 


10 


10 


36 


28 


8 


8 


10 


37 


29 


10 


9.5 


10 


34 


28 


9.5 


9.5 


10 


35 


28 


9 


10 


10 


35 


25 


10 


6 


10 


38.5 


28.5 


10 


10 


10 


36.5 


28.5 


9.5 


10 


10 


38 


29 


9.5 


9.5 


10 


36.5 


28 


10 


10 


10 


33.5 


29 


9.5 


10 


10 


32.5 


28 


9.5 


10 


10 


33 


30 


9 


1Q 


10 


32 


30 


9 


10 


10 


31 


29 


8 


10 


10 


30 


29 


8 


10 


10 


38 


27 


10 


9 


9 


36 


29 


10 


10 


10 


$5.5 


28.5 


10 


10 


10 



Notes. 



Connecticut 
do 

Iowa 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do. 

do 

do 

Kansas 

do 

do 



do. 

do. 

do. 

do. 

do. 

do. 



New York 
London ... 

Chicago 

do 

....do 

London ... 
Chicago ... 

do 

New York 

do 

Chicago . . . 

do 

New York 



do.... 

do.... 

do.... 

London _ . 
Chicago . . 
do.... 



Oct. 5 
Oct. 16 
May 1 
May 22 
June 4 
May 15 
May 22 
June 4 
Oct. 7 
Nov. 12 
July 2 
July 2 
July 7 

Aug. 26 
July 7 
Aug. 26 
July 19 
July 27 
July 27 



95. 5 

91 

92 

86 

97 

94.5 

96 

94.5 

92 

90 

92 

91 



Same as No. 1. 

Same as No. 3. 
Do. 
Do. 

Same as No. 7. 

Same as No. 9. 

Pasteurized. 

Raw cream. 

Paste urized 
same as No. 11. 

Do. 

Same as No. 12. 

Do. 

Do. 
Pasteurized. 
Raw cream. 



FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT. 



129 



Record of scoring of butter exported — Continued. 



Sample. 



Scored. 



Where made. 



Where. 



2d J. 
J. 
J. 



J. 
J. 
P. 
F. 
F. 
31 F. 
E. 
E. 
E. 
E. 
E. 
E. 
E. 
C. 
K. 
K. 
L. 
L. 
G. 
G. 
G. 
G. 

G. 
I. 
I. 
I. 
I. 

I. 
O. 

5 I O. 
O. 
D. 

X. 

N. 
X. 



Kansas New York 



.do 

.do 



.do.... 
.do.... 
.do.... 



.....do 

do 

Massachusetts- . 

do._ 

....do 

do 

Minnesota 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

New Hampshire 

New York 

do 

do 

do 

Ohio 

do 

do. 

do 



.do... 
.do... 
.do... 
.do... 
_do... 



.do. 
_do. 



.do 

.do. 

.do. 



.do London 



London ... 

....do 

Boston 

New York 

do 

London ... 
Minnesota 
New York 
London ._. 
Minnesota 
New York 

do 

London ... 

do 

New York 
London ... 
New York 
London ... 

Ohio 

New York 

do 

do 

London ... 

Ohio 

New York 

do 

do 



South Dakota 

....do 

.-..-do..._ 



Madison. . 

New York 
London . . . 



Vermont Boston 

Wisconsin .. 

...do 

do... 



Madison . . 
New York 
London ... 



When. 



July 29 
Aug. 26 
Aug. 26 



July 29 
Aug. 26 
Aug. 26 



Aug. 7 
Aug. 7 
June 18 
June 28 
July 21 
July 25 
June 17 
June 28 
July 14 
Oct. 25 
Nov. 1 
Nov. 12 
Nov. 14 
May 15 
Aug. 26 
Sept. 10 
Aug. 26 
Sept. 10 
Aug. 6 
July 29 
Aug. 26 
Aug. 26 

Aug. 7 
Aug. 6 
Aug. 2 
Aug. 26 
Aug. 26 

Aug. 9 
Nov. 1 
Nov. 3 
Nov. 14 
June 1 
Sept, 12 
Sept. 16 



Points and scale. 



« 



33 

31 

35 

35 

33 

36 

38 

36.5 

35 

39 

36 

35 

35 

35 

33 

33 

.35 

37 

38 

34 

as 

30 

32 
35 
32 
28 
31 



Average of al 1 , 60 records 

Average of 45 records in United States 34} 29 



Sept. 2") 35 



2:i.5 
•Z9. 5 
3D 



87 

30 
29 
30 
30 
29 
30 
30 
30 
30 
30 
28 
27 
30 
28 
30 
28 
26 
29 
29 
29 

24 

28 

29. 

29.5 

29.5 

18 
30 
30 
21) 
30 
28 
30 
27 

28* 



Hi 
10 
in 
10 

9.5 
10 
10 

9.5 
10 
10 
10 
10 
10 

8 

10 
10 
10 

111 

10 

10 



9.5 
10 

in 
10 
10 

in 



9} 



9J 



Notes. 



95.5 
94.5 
91 



111 


82 


10 


92 


111 


91.5 


10 


87.5 


10 


90.5 



96.5 

96 

73 

97 

93 

95 

87 

91} 
931 



Same as No. 18. 

Do. 

Pas teurized. 
Box sent t o 
London and 
back to New 
York. 

Same as No. 23. 

Box exported 
to London 
and sent back 
to New York. 

Pasteurized. 

Raw cream. 

Same as No. 28. 
Do. 
Do. 

Same as No. 32. 
Do. 

Same as No. 35. 
Do. 
Do. 



Same as No. 40. 
Same as No. 42. 



Same as No. 44. 

Do. 

Same lot. Re- 
turned from 
London. 

Same as No. 47. 



Same as No. 50. 

Same lot, back 
from London. 

Same as No. 52. 

Same as No. 54. 
Do. 



Same as No. 58. 
Do. 



London omit- 
ted. 



130 BUREAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTRY. 

NOTES UPON APPENDIX VIII. 

The scoring in London was much lower than elsewhere, and upon omitting this, 
as may fairly be done, the general average is seen to be much better. Chicago 
scoring averaged flavor a point higher than New York, and body a point lower. 
The packages appear to have been uniformly satisfactory. Salt and color were 
generally marked as perfect by American scorers, while in London both were 
"discounted " as being too high or strong. In body, the average of all is 28* out 
of a possible 30, which shows generally well-made butter; yet in this particular 
local differences in opinion are shown in the averages, being 29*. in New York, 
28* in Chicago, and 26* in London. In the right-hand column, " notes " indicates 
certain packages which are recorded as scored two or three times at different 
dates and places. For example, Nos. 3, 4, and 5 represent the same box of butter, 
held in Chicago, out of a lot of Iowa butter exported and scored May 1, then three 
weeks later, and two weeks later still; while No. 6, marked "same as No. 3," 
means a box of the same lot of butter, the same churning, scored after reaching 
London. A similar instance occurs with Nos. 28, 29, 30, and 31. No. 27 is the 
score of a package exported to London and brought back to New York; it was 
rated seven points better when it reached New York than when in London (No. 
48) and but four points less than when it left New York (No. 45) ; and this deteri- 
oration is shown to be wholly in the flavor. Another instance is the score No. 52, 
as compared with No. 53 and No. 50; No. 53 shows the poor work done in London, 
and indicates the effect of such figures on the general average; it may be noted in 
this case that the butter lost but one point (on flavor) by its journey to and from 
London, while another box of the same lot which remained in New York dropped 
off four points in the same time, August 2 to 26. 

In three cases — Nos. 11 and 12, 18 and 19, 26 and 27 — there are opportunities for 
comparing butter from pasteurized cream and from raw cream, otherwise the 
same; in these cases the former scored higher than the latter. Nos. 11 and 13, the 
same butter, scored alike in Chicago and New York and lost but one point by 
being held from July 2 until Augvist 26: Nos. 12 and 15, the same (raw cream) 
butter, which scored two points lower in New York than in Chicago, lost only 
one point by being held the same period. In all there are eight scores of pasteur- 
ized butter, and these give an average total of 92 points, which is just above the 
total average. The only butters which scored above 95 points when examined in 
New York prior to exportation were the following: No. 1, Connecticut, in Octo- 
ber; No. 33, Minnesota, in June; No. 9, Iowa, in October; No. 36, Minnesota, in 
November; and No. 55, South Dakota, also November. In other respects these 
figures, which at first appear to have little significance, are susceptible of inter- 
esting comparisons. 



FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT. 



131 



ArrENDTX IX. 



RECORD OF SCORING OF FOREIGN-MADE BUTTERS. 



Sample of butter. 



No. 



Where made. 



Form. 



Brittany, France. . 

....do 

....do 

do 



rolls; no- 
salt. 



Normandy, France 

do 

do 

do 

Denmark 

do... 

....do 



Firkin . . 

do... 

Basket 

do... 

< 'ask . . 
...do - 
do... 



.do... Sealedtin 

Cask 

....do ... 

Keg 

....do.... 

Box 

Sealed tin 

Box 

....do .... 



do 

do 

Dorset, England. . . 

do 

Ireland (creamery i 

do. 

do 

do. 

Holland ' Keg 

do do 

Finland do 

.... .do do 

New South Wales. Cub'l box 

New Zealand do 

do do — 



Scored. 



Where 



When. 



NewYork 

do.... 

Chicago . . 

London 

NewYork 

do.... 

do.... 

Chicago . . 
NewYork 

do.... 

Chicago . 
NewYork 
London .. 

do.... 

NewYork 

do.... 

do.... 

....do... 
....do.... 
Chicago . . 
NewYork 
Chicago.. 
NewYork 
Chicago.. 
NewYork 
....do.... 
Chicago.. 



June 28 
Nov. 3 
Nov. 10 
Sept. 29 
June 28 
Aug. 26 
Nov. 3 
Nov. 10 
June 28 
Nov. 3 
Nov. 10 
July 21 
July 25 
Sept. 29 
June 28 
Aug. 86 
June 28 
July 21 
Nov. 3 
Nov. 10 
Nov. 3 
Nov. 10 
Nov. 3 
Nov. 10 
June 28 
Nov. 3 
Nov. 10 



Points and scale. 



ft 



36.5 

35 

86 

38 

31 

29 

:S3 
■ 



30 
30 
30 
89 

29 
30 
30 
30 
35.530 
28 30 



33 

37 
37 
30.5 

'.'S 

86 

27 

34 

26 

32. 5 

24 

33 

24 

••'.i 

:;:; 

24 



in 
in 
in 

9 
111 
in 
10 

9.5 
in 

9.5 

9. 5 
10 
in 

9 
10 
10 

9. 5 
10 
Hi 
in 

9. 5 

8 

9. 5 

8 
10 
10 

111 



111 

10 
10 
10 

111 
II) 

10 
10 
10 
10 
10 
10 

111 

9 

9.5 
9. 5 

HI 
in 
in 
in 
ID 

to 

III 
111 

10 

111 
III 



95 



95 
87.5 
93 
91 



86. 5 

84 

si; 

93. 5 

85 

91.5 

82 

92.5 



st 



Notes. 



Same as No. 2 

Same as No. 5 
Same as No. 7 

Same as No. 10 

Same as No. 15 

Same as No. 19 
Same as No. 21 
Same as No. 23 

Same as No. 26 



NOTES UPON APPENDIX IX. 

These are scores upon foreign butter, made in this country by American judges, 
upon an American basis. The general average of the 27 records is as follows: 
Flavor 30f, body 29A, color 9f, saltlo, packagelO; total 90. This indicates that the 
imported butter was found in good condition upon examination in New York and 
Chicago, with the exception of flavor, which had deteriorated nearly 25 per cent. 
"Notes'' indicate records of the same butter examined at different times and 
places. Seven lots of butter which averaged 93£ points in New York on November 
3 averaged 84± points in Chicago a week later ; the main disparity was that the 
New York scores averaged 8 points higher on flavor. This was manifestly due 
to difference in judgment rather than actual change in the butter; the same judges 
varied but'half a point (average) on the "body"' of the same samples. 

The only lots of these foreign butters which scored above 94 points in New York 
were the two Danish casks brought over in June and November and the fresh 
Brittany rolls imported at the same time. 
5422 4 



132 



BUEEAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTRY. 



APPENDIX X. 

RECORD OF CHEMICAL ANALYSES OF BUTTER EXPORTED. 



The butter sampled. 



No. 


s 


1 


p 


2 


p 


3 


A 


4 


A 


5 


A 


6 


A 


7 


H 


8 


H 


9 


H 


10 


H 


11 


J 


12 


P 


13 


P 


14 


F 


15 


F 


16 


E 


17 


E 


18 


E 


19 


E 


20 


E 


21 


K 


22 


K 


28 


L 


24 


L 


25 


M 


26 


M 


27 


G 


28 


G 


29 


I 


30 


I 


31 


O 


82 





33 


D 


34 


N 


35 


N 



Where made. 



Analyzed. 



Where. 



When. 



Report of analysis. 



Wa- 
ter. 



Fat. 



-M w 

ft 



rfi 



Notes. 



Connecticut 

do 

Iowa 

do 

do 

do 

Kansas 

do 

do 

do 

do.. 

Massachusetts . . 

do 

do 

do 

Minnesota 

do 

do 

do 

do 

New York 

....do- 

do 

do 

.--...do..... 

do 

Ohio 

do 

do 

do 

South Dakota . . 

.-..do 

Vermont 

Wisconsin 

do 

Average of the 35 . . 



Connecticut 

London 

Iowa 

do 

do 

London — 
Iowa 

do 

London 

do 

do 

Mass 

U.S.D.A.6. 

do 

London 

Minnesota . 
U.S.D.A.. 

London 

Minnesota 

London 

New York . 

London 

New York . 

London 

New York . 

London 

Ohio 

London 

Ohio 

London 

Wisconsin . 

London 

Vermont. .. 
Wisconsin . 
London 



October 

do 

July 

do 

October 

November. 

August 

do 

July 

August 

do 

June 

August 

do 

July 

Jime 

August 

July 

November . 
do 

September. 

do. 

do 

do 

do. 

do 

August 

do 

do 

do 

November . 
do.-.-f. 

June 

September 

October 



10.90 

9.30 

8.12 

12.87 

11.52 

8.08 

8.54 

10.73 

10.12 

8.33 

9.35 

9.78 

9.41 

9.63 

8.64 

11.41 

12.39 

10.80 

10.83 

11.20 

12.54 

11. 72 

12.63 

11.73 

10.50 

9.82 

10.64 

10.17 

9.42 

11.10 

9.38 

8.77 

11.37 

10.66 

9.5: 



85.68 
87.30 
88.59 
84.21 
85.95 
90.09 
89.49 
86.37 
88.08 
89.43 
88.86 
87.71 
87.84 
87.24 
88.82 
86.81 
85.06 
86.96 
86.86 
86.98 
86.28 
87.73 
86.30 
87.79 
87.53 
88.54 
87.16 
88.21 
87.33 
86.71 
87.96 



87.35 



1.00 
1.00 
1.06 
1.23 
1.10 
0.59 
0.94 
1.19 
1.10 
0.93 
0.67 
0.85 
0.89 
1.04 
0.75 
0.52 
0.91 
0.96 
0.65 
0.68 
0.83 
0.49 
0.33 
0.43 
0.33 
0.52 
0.80 
1.07 
0.73 
0.8: 
1.30 
0.92 
0.53 
0.98 
0.76 



(a) 

(a) 

0.40 

0.70 

0.30 

(a) 

0.25 

0.94 

(a) 

(a) 

(a) 

(a) 

0.04 

0.03 

(a) 

(a) 

0.03 

(a) 

(a) 

(a) 

0.48 

0.05 

0.04 

0.05 

(a) 

(a) 

0.53 

(a) 

0.78 

(a) 

(a) 

(a) 

(a) 

(a) 

(a) 



10.30 



87.20 



0.81 



0.33 



2.42 

2.40 

1.83 

0.99 

1.13 

1.24 

0.78 

0.77 

0.70 

1.21 

1.12 

1 

1.82 

2.06 

1.79 

1.26 

1.61 

1.28 

1 

1.14 

0.00 

0.00 

0.00 

0.00 

1.25 

1.1 

0.87 

0.55 

1.64 

1.3 

1.36 

1.42 

1.85 

1.01 

0.86 

1.36 



Same as No. 1. 



Same as No. 5. 

Raw cream. 

Pasteurized. 

Raw. 

Same as No. 8. 



Same as No. 12. 
Do. 
Do. 

Same as No. 16. 
Do. 

Same as No. 19. 

Same as No. 21. 

Same as No. 23. 

Same as No. 25. 

Same as No. 27. 

Same as No. 29. 

Same as No. 31. 

Same as No. 34. 



a The "natural ash " or mineral constituents included in the "salt" in these cases. 
b U. S. D. A. = United States Department of Agriculture. 



NOTES UPON APPENDIX X. 

The average of these 35 analyses shows the lots of butter to which they apply to 
have been exceptionally well made. The average of 10.3 per cent of moisture and 
87.2 per cent of fat is much above commercial standards, while less than 1 per cent 
of curdy contents is correspondingly low and creditable. The range is not near 
as great as usual in the same number of samples from creamery butter as ordi- 
narily made. Excepting two unsalted lots (Nos. 21 and 23), the water content 



FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT. 



133 



exceeds 12.5 per cent in only one case (No. 4, July butter) , and the same lot is the 
only one in which the fat fell below 85 per cent. The latter was the minimum 
standard which it was intended to maintain. The figures for ash and salt show 
variation which indicates the difficulty of getting reliable results in these partic- 
ulars from small butter samples as ordinarily taken. All of these butters were 
intentionally light salted, but the aim was to make them carry from 2 to 2 -A per 
cent, and the uniformity of judgment in scoring these same lots, as per Appendix 
VIII, showed that they satisfied the taste of experts in this regard better than 
appears from this chemical record. 

The butter exported appears even better from the records of the London analyst 
than from those made in this country. Thirteen lots were analyzed on both sides 
of the sea, and the results are compared below : 

Analysis of United States butter in United States and in London. 



1 Water. 


Fat. 


Curd. 


Ash. 


Salt. 


Averages : 


Per cent. 
10.77 

9.87 


Per cent. 

. 86.56 

88.03 


Per cent. 

0.81 
.76 


Per cent. \Per cent. 

51 1 9K 


In London 




1.35 







This comparison indicates that, despite all precautions, the butter dried out 
somewhat in transit, thus decreasing the water content and increasing the per- 
centage of fat. The results on curd were very close, but, curiously, the London 
analyst, although he did not separate natural ash and salt, found less mineral 
matter in his drier butter than was found by American chemists. This is prob- 
ably another example of the uneven distribution of salt in butter and the diffi- 
culty of getting duplicate samples in this respect. 

APPENDIX XI. 



RECORD OF ANALYSES OF FOREIGN-MADE BUTTERS. 

[Representative selections imported by the Department of Agriculture.] ' 



No. 



The butter sampled. 



Form. ' Where made. 



Analyzed. 



Where. 



When. 



Report of analysis. 



Wa- 
ter. 



Fat. 



Curd. 



Nat- 
ural 



Salt. 



1 


Cask . 


Dorset, England . . . 


3 


...do.. 


do 


R 


...do 
Box.. 


do 


4 


Ireland (creamery) 


5 


...do.. 


do 


6 


...do.. 


do 


7 


...do.. 


do.. 


8 


Tin... 


Ireland (Cork) 


9 


Keg.. 
...do.. 


Denmark 


10 


do 


11 


...do.. 


do 


12 


.do.. 


.....do 


13 


...do.. 


......do 


If 


Tin 

Cask . 


do 


15 


France. Normandy 


16 


...do.. 


.do 



London 


July 


U. S. D. A. c.- 


do .... 


Connecticut . 


do .... 


U. S. D. A.... 


do .... 


Connecticut . 


do .... 


U. S. D. A..._ 


November 




do .... 


U. S. D. A.... 


August . . . 


London 


July 


U. S. D.A.... 


do .... 


Connecticut . 


do .... 


U. S. D. A.... 


November 




do .... 


U. S. D.A.... 


August . . . 


....do 


July 


Connecticut . 


do .... 



15.00 
13.89 
13.51 
14.63 
15.03 
15.31 
13.38 
15. 31 
13.08 
9.71 
8.93 
13.03 
11.57 
8.63 
13.33 
10.17 



83.39 
84.33 
85.65 
79.54 
79.31 
83.17 
84.93 
78.50 
86.39 
88.11 
89. 05 
84.46 
86.10 
87.80 
83.13 
85.95 



0.50 

.48 

.08 

1.67 

1.53 

1.13 

.88 

3.40 

.71 

1.06 

1.03 

1.15 

1.33 

1.39 

1.18 

1.09 



(a) 

C.03 

(«) 
.63 

(a) 
.14 
.06 
.44 

(a) 
.03 

(a) 
.05 
.15 
.06 
.36 

(a) 



1.11 
1.37 
1.16 
3.51 
4.34 
1.35 

.85 
3.35 

.93 
1.09 

.99 
1.33 

.85 
3.33 
3.33 
3.79 



(b) 
(b) 
(b) 
(b) 
(b) 



(b) 
(b) 



a The " natural ash " or mineral con. tituents included in the " salt " in these cases. 
b Samplet were found to contain preservative, generally borax, 
c U. S. D. A. = United States Department of Agriculture. 



134 BUREAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTRY. 

Record of analyses of foreign-made butters — Continued. 
[Representative selections imported by the Department of Agriculture.] 



The butter sampled. 


Analyzed. 


Report of analysis. 




No. 


Form. 


Where made. 


Where. 


When. 


Wa- 
ter. 


Fat. 


Curd. 


Nat- 
ural 
ash. 


Salt. 




17 

18 
19 
20 
"1 


Bas- 
ket. 
...do.. 
...do._ 
Rolls . 
...do 
...do 
do 


France, Normandy 

do 

.....do 

France, Brittany . . 
do 


London 

U. S. D. A.t.. 

Iowa 

U. S. D. A.... 
Connecticut . 

London 

U. S. D. A.... 


October... 

November 

do .... 

July 

do .... 
September 
November 
do .... 


10.63 

11.91 
8.88, 
15.36 
15.52 
13.56 
14.59 
10.37 
12.57 
11.29 
12.86 
10.56 
10.40 
15.50 
14.94 
10.89 
8.65 


85.50 

85.55 
89.23 
83.70 
^83.80 
85.36 
84.10 
88.72 
83.71 
85.47 
83.75 
87.17 


1.06 

1.13 
.79 
.75 
.57 

.78 
1.03 

.81 
1.30 
1.43 
1.16 
1.01 


(a) 

.11 
.20 
.19 
.11 

.30 
.28 
.08 
.04 
.35 
.24 
.13 

(a) 
.05 

(a) 
.03 
.06 


2.81 

1.30 
.90 

2.38 
1.46 
1.99 
1.18 
1.32 
2.29 
2 22 
1.86 
1.32 


(t>) 

(&) 
(6) 

(b) 

(b) 
(b) 


22 


do 


°S 


...do 


9A 


...do.. 

Cask . 
...do.. 

Keg.. 
...do 

Box .. 
...do.. 
...do 
...do.. 
...do.. 


do 


85 




U.S. D.A-... 


do .... 

do .... 


9 fi 


do 




4, 7 


U. S. D. A.... 


do .... 

do .... 


(6) 


98 


do.. 


(b) 


?9 


London 

U. S. D. A.... 
Connecticut . 
IT. S. D. A.--. 


August . . . 
July ...,,. 
do .... 
November 
....do .... 


87.51 .77 


(b) 


30 
SI 


New South Wales. 
. do 


81.17 
81.88 
86.62 
89.27 


.98 
.96 
.60 
.70 


(b) 
(b) 


32 
33 


New Zealand 

do 














12.40 


84.57 


1.03 


.17 


1.83 















a The " natural ash " or mineral constituents included in the " salt " in these cases. 
b Samples were found to contain preservative, generally borax, 
c U. S. D. A. = United States Department of Agriculture. 

NOTES UPON APPENDIX XI. 

The first comparison suggested by this table is the general average composition 
of this foreign-made butter, with the analyses of an almost equal number, in 
Appendix X. The water is seen to be 2.1 per cent more and the fat 2.6 per cent 
less. There is also more curdy matter in this butter and more salt. The chemi- 
cal preservatives used are included in the "salt,"' and, although the quantities 
were not determined, these may account for the rise in the salt results. The 
range is also noted as much greater than in the American butters. The water 
rises above 12 per cent in 19 instances and to 15 per cent and over in 7. The fat 
falls below 85 per cent in 16 cases and below 82 per cent in 5 cases. The European 
butter without salt resembles that made similarly in this country in carrying a 
relatively high per cent of water and low per cent of fat, a greater difference in 
these respects than is accounted for simply by the absence of 2 per cent or less of 
salt. It is notable that all this foreign butter was '•borated,'' or treated with 
preservatives other than common salt, excepting the lots from England, Den- 
mark, Finland, and New Zealand. 



FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT. 



135 






Cents per l&. 













^ 



3/3 



■<22 u9dsg.udg 



136 BUREAU of animal industry. 

NOTES UPON APPENDIX XII (DIAGRAM). 

Upon the accompanying diagram the lines indicating the fluctuations in prices 
of butter in London and New York are based upon weekly quotations of the best 
grades of Danish and States, or " creamery extras," published by old and reliable 
merchants in the respective cities. The only exception is a period from early 
April to early July, when the London house failed to quote States butter. For 
this period the prices have been estimated from other data. 

The most striking feature of the diagram is the difference between the prices 
of best butter in London and in New York during the greater part of the year. 
It is generally understood that American markets are so good in winter as to 
remove all inducement to export. The diagram does not suppor* his view, 
except as to the last three months of 1897. The difference varies fro* i nothing 
late in October to over 7 cents per pound less than two months earlier. With the 
exception of a few weeks near the close of the year, the difference was at all times 
greater than the cost of moving butter from New York to London. The explana- 
tion seems to be that during the winter months, when the margin in price might 
have encouraged export from New York, the supply of good "Colonial" (Aus- 
tralian and New Zealand) butter in England was such as to prevent any success- 
ful competition from this country. 

The diagram also indicates the grade of butter exported. During seven months 
of the year States butter in London was quoted lower than "creamery extras " in 
New York. If the grade of exported butter had been " extras" it surely would 
have been kept at home and sold at the higher rate. In May, June, July, and 
August extras were very low in New York, and this appears to have started the 
shipment of that grade, which continued until New York prices rose again. 

The notes upon the diagram are confirmed by the Treasury Department returns 
of the quantity and value of butter exported from the United States to the United 
Kingdom during the successive months of the year in question. 



tf 



mi 



